Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


r\ir 


Itney  Bigelow 


By  Poultney  Bigelow 

The  German  Emperor  and  his  Eastern  Neighbours 

(Also  in  German  Translation,} 

Paddles  and  Politics 

A  Canoe  Voyage  from  the  Black  Forest  to  the  Black  Sea. 
(Also  in  German  Translation,} 

Bismarck 

(Also  in  German  Translation.} 

Borderland  of  Czar  and  Kaiser 

Studies  on  the  Polish  Frontier 

Children  of  the  Nations 

A  Study  of  Colonies.     (Also  in  German  Translation,} 

White  Man's  Africa 

Study  of  the  Boer  Country  in   1896.       (Also  in  French 
Translation,} 

The  German  Struggle  for  Liberty.     1806-1848 

A  History.     In  4  volumes. 

Prussian  Memories.     1864-1914 

(Also  in  French  Translation,} 

Genseric 

King  of  the  Vandals  and  First  Prussian  Kaiser 


Prussianism  and 
Pacifism 

The  Two  Wilhelms 
Between  the  Revolutions  of  1848  and  1918 


By 

Poultney  Bigelow,  M.A.,  F.R.G.S. 

Author  of  "The    German    Struggle    for    Liberty:   a  History" 
(1806-1848) 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and   London 

dbc     Ikmcfcerbocfcer     press 
1919 


COPYRIGHT,    1919 
BY 

POULTNEY    B1GELOW 


Ubc  Tknicherbocfecr  press,  Iftew  tyorfe 


"  And  it  was  no  small  affliction  to  consider  that  he 
had  lost  in  one  hour  all  that  glory  and  power  which 
he  had  been  getting  in  so  many  .  .  .  bloody  battles ; 
and  that  he  who  but  a  little  before  was  guarded  with 
such  an  army  of  foot,  so  many  squadrons  of  horse,  and 
such  a  mighty  fleet,  was  now  flying  in  so  mean  a  con- 
dition and  with  such  a  slender  retinue,  that  his  very 
enemies  who  fought  him  could  not  know  him." 

(PLUTARCH — referring  to  the  end  of  Pompey 
the  Great  twenty  centuries  ago.) 


492827 


PREFACE 

T  N  this  little  book  I  have  attempted  to  sketch  the 
past  seventy  years  of  Hohenzollern  glory  and 
shame — beginning  with  the  flight  from  Berlin  of 
the  first  Wilhelm  when  Crown  Prince  (1848)  and 
closing  with  an  escape  equally  remarkable  by  his 
grandson  (1918)  to  Amerongen.  In  the  matter 
of  names  and  dates  any  encyclopaedia  or  college 
textbook  could  furnish  all  that  these  pages  offer; 
but  while  German  presses  have  issued  endless  mate- 
rial in  this  field,  experience  leads  me  to  think  that 
much  of  interest  has  been  wilfully  colored  if  not 
wholly  suppressed  through  official  influence. 

It  would  be  sinning  against  proportion  were  I 
to  weight  so  slight  a  sketch  with  a  bibliographic 
appendix  or  even  an  index.  Much  that  I  here 
print  is  opposed  to  popular  history  as  made  in 
Germany  and  still  more  has  come  through  per- 
sonal channels. 

Of  course  I  claim  no  credit  unless  it  be  for  a 
desire  to  serve  my  country  and  at  the  same  time 
tell  the  truth — rarely  a  grateful  or  even  possible 


vi  Preface 

task.  It  is  to  my  father  that  I  owe  all  that  can 
give  interest  to  this  work.  It  was  he  who  guided 
my  studies  and  stimulated  my  taste  for  historic 
literature.  From  my  earliest  recollection  to  the 
close  of  his  ninety-four  years  he  frowned  upon 
every  needless  expenditure  yet  was  generous  to 
extravagance  in  providing  me  with  books  however 
bulky  or  costly.  It  was  to  him  that  I  owed  my 
opportunities  not  merely  at  the  court  of  the  Wil- 
helms  but  also  in  the  capital  of  Eugenie  and  her 
deplorable  Napoleon.  Above  all  it  is  to  him  that 
I  owe  a  lifetime  of  study  and  travel  without  which 
this  book  could  not  pretend  to  the  small  portion 
of  value  recognized  by  my  perhaps  too  indulgent 
publishers. 

As  I  lay  down  my  pen  it  is  with  the  feeling  that 
it  will  never  be  raised  again — not  even  in  self- 
defence!  I  am  now  too  near  the  scriptural  span 
of  human  life  to  cultivate  the  mock  modesty  of  a 
sophomore  in  letters;  and  have  more  than  once 
yielded  to  the  temptation  of  garrulous  remi- 
niscence. If  I  wound  the  sensitive  in  any  word, 
may  he  do  me  the  justice  to  believe  that  I  have 
set  down  naught  in  malice.  If  I  awaken  a  respon- 
sive chord  in  the  hearts  of  many  whose  faces  I 
may  never  see,  let  them  attribute  this  to  the  for- 
tunate fact  that  in  my  long  life  I  have  suffered 


Preface  vii 

much  and  seen  much;  and  whilst  I  have  never 
known  idleness,  still  less  have  I  ever  been  com- 
pelled by  pecuniary  pressure  to  surrender  my 
liberty  as  a  commentator  on  current  events. 

And  so  to  the  critical  and  the  kindly  I  send  the 
benediction  of  an  old  man  who  has  sought  dili- 
gently for  the  truth  and  earnestly  hopes  he  may 
have  found  perhaps  a  fragment — however  small. 

POULTNEY   BlGELOW. 

MALDEN-ON-HUDSON,  1919. 


Prussianism    and   Pacifism 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Two  Wilhelms  —  Some  Points  of  Resemblance 


nPHE  collapse  of  the  Hohenzollern  Empire  in 
1918  carries  the  mind  to  the  equally  amazing 
debacle  of  Bonapartism  in  1870;  for  each  of  these 
short-lived  empires  seemed  to  many  learned  con- 
temporaries the  symbol  of  outward  strength  and 
internal  efficiency.  Let  us  merely  recall  that 
when  Napoleon  III.  marched  forth  against  Wilhelm 
I.,  the  newspaper  correspondents  hurried  to  join 
in  what  they  believed  would  be  a  triumphant 
march  into  Berlin.  It  was  only  after  rebuff  at  the 
French  Headquarters  that  they  reluctantly  sought 
those  of  Germany.  And  now  once  more  in  1914, 
we  find  the  same  species  of  ignorance  amongst 
Americans  of  academic  eminence  and  even  amongst 
officers  graduate  from  our  naval  and  military 


2         Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

colleges.  In  July  of  1870  bets  at  West  Point  and 
Annapolis  would  have  favoured  France.  In  July, 
1914,  bets  at  the  same  messes  would  have  argued 
a  swift  and  complete  victory  for  Wilhelm  II. 

Of  course  the  wise  minority  existed  in  1870  as 
in  1914,  but  this  country  is  too  busy  to  concern 
itself  with  minorities — wise  or  otherwise.  Ameri- 
can publishers  and  politicians  find  but  qualified 
satisfaction  in  exploiting  unpopular  views  or  lu- 
gubrious predictions.  The  student  of  history  will 
marvel  if  he  attempts  to  scan  the  thousands  of 
articles  in  popular  periodicals  during  the  years 
immediately  preceding  these  two  tragical  conflicts. 
He  will  perhaps  conclude  that  the  liberty  of  the 
press  means  the  power  of  an  ignorant  majority 
to  exclude  from  public  notice  the  reasoning  of 
those  whose  knowledge  might  prove  unwelcome 
to  their  readers  or  offensive  to  advertisers.  It  is 
difficult  to  explain  otherwise  how  a  great  nation 
blessed  with  every  apparent  facility  for  acquiring 
knowledge — free  schools,  free  press,  and  free  speech 
— should  in  August  of  1914  have  doubted  in  regard 
to  the  aims  of  the  Prussian  Empire.  There  are 
no  surprises  for  the  statesman  who  knows  history. 
Moreover  there  is  no  moment  in  the  life  of  a  nation 
that  is  more  important  than  any  other.  Wars 
and  famines,  earthquakes  and  pestilences — these 


Grandfather  and  Grandson        3 

make  convenient  aids  to  memory  and  help  to 
fasten  the  attention  of  uncritical  readers.  But 
if  history  is  to  serve  humanity,  its  duty  is  to  lay 
bare  the  causes  of  disaster  and  thus  help  the  legis- 
lator to  frame  better  laws  for  the  future.  The 
seeds  of  Sedan  were  planted  by  Napoleon  III. 
before  even  the  imperial  crown  was  placed  upon 
his  head  and  the  flight  of  Wilhelm  II.  from  his 
army  in  November  of  1918  was  foreshadowed  by 
the  policy  of  his  grandfather,  of  whom  he  was  an 
enthusiastic  and  pious  disciple. 

The  resemblance  between  grandfather  and 
grandson  is  not  superficially  apparent,  particu- 
larly as  this  comparison  has  been  mainly  made 
when  Wilhelm  I.  was  an  old  man  conspicuous  for 
his  benevolent  appearance  and  courtly  simplicity. 
Wilhelm  II.  on  the  other  hand  dazzled  his  contem- 
poraries by  the  almost  acrobatic  violence  of  his 
accession  to  power;  the  rapidity  with  which  he 
commenced  touring  the  neighbouring  countries; 
the  boyish  enthusiasm  with  which  he  discussed 
social  reforms,  art,  music,  biblical  archaeology, 
anything  and  everything  that  met  his  fancy.  But 
behind  all  this,  which  was  foreign  to  the  tastes  of 
Wilhelm  I.,  was  a  deep-down  belief  in  the  divine 
mission  of  a  Hohenzollern  and  in  this  creed  grand- 
father and  grandson  were  one.  Wilhelm  II.  was 


4          Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

the  beloved  of  Wilhelm  I.  and  the  grandson  adored 
his  grandfather  as  the  perfect  flower  of  Prussian 
autocracy.  We  may  reasonably  picture  William 
II.  on  his  knees  in  July  of  1914,  praying  his  God 
for  information  as  to  what  would  have  been  done 
under  like  conditions  by  his  ever-to-be -remembered 
grandfather.  We  shall  soon  see  that  the  answer 
to  this  prayer,  if  not  from  the  lips  of  Wilhelm  I., 
was  at  least  in  harmony  with  what  those  lips  had 
repeatedly  uttered  throughout  his  long  years  of 
public  life. 


CHAPTER  II 

Wilhelm  I.  and  the  Revolution  of  1848 — His  Relations 

to   England  and  Russia — Nicholas   I.   and 

—Last! 

A  A  7ILHELM  I.  lived  more  than  ninety  years 
"  *  and  died  peaceably  in  his  bed  amidst  a 
people  who  mourned  him  as  the  greatest  of  Ger- 
mans, the  source  of  their  power  as  an  Empire. 
Whether  the  worship  of  a  god  be  inspired  by  dread 
of  his  displeasure  rather  than  admiration  of  his 
virtue,  we  need  not  here  discuss.  In  Prussia  at 
least  experience  had  taught  that  whilst  adoration 
of  the  war  lord  was  usual  and  perfectly  safe,  those 
who  lagged  in  their  worship  were  rarely  successful 
— save  in  some  other  country.  Wilhelm  preferred 
that  Prussians  should  adore  him,  because  in  this 
manner  the  task  of  the  recruiting  officer  was  ren- 
dered less  costly.  The  first  Kaiser  was,  like  his 
father  (Friedrich  Wilhelm  III.),  a  thrifty  and 
simple  man.  He  desired  a  docile  people  as  my 
neighbour  prefers  a  docile  cow  at  milking  time. 
But  whilst  the  farmer  may  sell  a  cow  that  kicks 

5 


6          Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

his  pail,  the  Prussian  King  is  put  to  the  expense 
of  mobilizing  troops,  employing  secret  agents,  fill- 
ing prisons,  and  thus  withdrawing  from  profitable 
work  many  potential  taxpayers.  The  dread  of 
popular  agitation  was  ever  in  this  King's  mind  and 
whatever  his  outward  aspect  of  benevolent  courtesy 
might  be,  it  reposed  upon  the  consciousness  that  his 
will  was  law — to  a  people  in  arms. 

Twice  had  Wilhelm  been  forced  to  seek  refuge 
under  the  protection  of  a  foreign  flag — the  first 
time  was  when  Napoleon  I.  marched  his  army  into 
Berlin  after  the  crushing  victory  at  Jena  (1806). 
He  fled  then  with  his  mother  along  the  Baltic  to 
the  Russian  border,  until  they  were  allowed  to 
pause  for  breath  under  the  bayonets  of  a  brother 
autocrat,  the  Czar  Alexander  I.  The  impressions 
of  this  year,  shameful  in  Hohenzollern  history, 
burned  ever  after  in  the  spirit  of  Wilhelm,  for  he 
was  of  an  age  when  lads  receive  their  most  pre- 
cious lessons  and  learn  to  hate  and  fear  and  wor- 
ship. In  that  year  he  hated  and  feared  Napoleon 
—but  he  worshipped  the  autocratic  Czar  who 
saved  Prussia  from  annihilation;  and  whose 
successors  became  as  partners  in  a  pious  but 
unpractical  mission  to  suppress  revolution  and 
to  guarantee  each  the  other's  territory. 

In  1848  Wilhelm,  as  Crown  Prince,  was  again 


Escape  to  London  7 

chased  from  Berlin;  this  time  by  his  own  people, 
who  had  voted  themselves  a  liberal  constitution, 
and  proposed  to  make  a  federal  Germany  some- 
what after  the  pattern  of  the  United  States.  Wil- 
helm  was  offered  up  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  popular 
clamour;  he  was  secretly  conveyed  at  night  from 
the  big  Berlin  palace  to  Spandau,  a  fortress  domi- 
nating the  capital.  Thence  he  was  driven  to 
Potsdam,  and  concealed  on  an  island  in  the  Havel, 
where  the  gardener's  cottage  gave  him  shelter. 
Thence  he  made  his  way  to  Hamburg  in  disguise 
and  was  concealed  in  the  house  of  the  Prussian 
consul,  who  secured  passage  for  him,  under  an 
assumed  name,  to  England.  In  due  course  and 
after  hardships  and  dangers  vastly  greater  than 
those  likely  to  meet  a  modern  traveller  circumnavi- 
gating the  globe,  our  hunted  autocrat  pounded  at  the 
door  of  the  Prussian  legation  in  London  and  pounded 
long  and  loudly,  for  it  was  an  early  hour  in  winter 
and  the  British  are  not  early  risers.  Those  who 
care  for  the  details  of  a  monarch's  life  (and  I  do  not) 
must  hunt  them  in  the  dozens  of  lives  that  are  in 
any  public  library.  In  these  pages  we  are  con- 
cerned with  a  study  of  this  remarkable  King  and 
his  even  more  remarkable  grandson,  only  so  far 
as  they  together  explain  the  colossal  crash  of  1918. 
Wilhelm  I.,  after  1848,  worshipped  but  one  God 


8          Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

— a  Prussian  God — a  God  in  spiked  helmet  and 
rasping  voice — a  God  who  promised  that  never 
again  should  the  people  dictate  to  their  divinely 
appointed  King;  never  again  should  Prussia  be 
anything  but  a  military  state  ruled  by  their  Ho- 
henzollern  war  lord.  Piety  of  the  old-fashioned 
God-fearing  kind  was  part  of  Wilhelm.  He  had 
little  imagination,  but  a  natural  love  of  discipline 
and  tidiness  which  fitted  well  into  his  Prussian 
surroundings  and  made  of  him  the  favourite  toast 
of  every  mess  room  between  Ehrenbreitstein  and 
Memel.  Had  he  been  a  man  of  imagination  or 
had  he  even  associated  with  men  of  the  world,  he 
would  in  his  English  exile  have  absorbed  some 
useful,  if  novel,  ideas.  In  1848,  nearly  every 
throne  was  emptied  and  nearly  every  champion 
of  autocracy  fled  into  hiding — most  of  them  taking 
refuge  in  the  world's  temple  of  civil  liberty,  under 
the  shadow  of  Westminster.  Here  might  Wilhelm 
have  pertinently  enquired  how  it  happened  that 
whilst  his  land  of  the  military  goose  step  was  now  a 
political  bedlam,  London  and  Glasgow  went  about 
their  business  much  as  usual;  Queen  Victoria 
drove  out  daily  with  her  beloved  German  hus- 
band; and  they  felt  sorry  for  dear,  good  Louis 
Philippe — and  also  for  their  cousin  of  Potsdam. 
But  the  idea  that  Englishmen  would  rear  barri- 


London  Exile  9 

cades  when  they  had  legal  redress  in  other  ways — 
that  was  indeed  ridiculous  to  them  no  less  than  to 
their  subjects.  Wilhelm  was  profoundly  bored  in 
England,  where  he  was  but  one  of  many  royal 
refugees  and  where  he  sadly  missed  the  parade 
ground  movements  that  had  ever  been  his  delight. 
Bitterly  he  blamed  his  brother  (Friedrich  Wilhelm 
IV.)  for  having  exiled  him  to  the  sooty  solitude  of 
London  when  the  Romanoff  court  would  have 
been  immensely  more  agreeable;  for  was  not  his 
sister  wife  of  Nicholas  I.?  Wilhelm  had  made 
frequent  visits  to  that  court — more  even  than 
those  of  Wilhelm  II.  to  the  Vatican.  Nicholas 
had  much  of  the  Wilhelm  in  him — he  was  of  ma- 
jestic and  soldierly  stature — he  was  a  devout 
believer  in  absolute  military  rule — he  knew  no 
personal  fear  and,  next  to  the  cholera,  knew  of 
no  disease  so  pernicious  as  public  discussion. 
Wilhelm  was  always  happy  with  Nicholas,  for 
at  that  court  were  never  heard  any  clamours  for 
a  constitution.  Siberia  was  full  of  deported  sub- 
jects whose  crime  consisted  in  thinking  aloud, 
but  Wilhelm  did  not  see  these.  He  saw  only  the 
line  upon  line  of  well-drilled  guards  and  heard 
only  their  shouts  of  loyalty  which  resounded  au- 
tomatically on  the  appearance  of  their  war  lord. 
He  did  not  see  beyond  these  lines;  his  imagination 


io        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

did  not  help  him  to  feel  that  a  great  people  can 
only  be  ruled  through  fear  when  the  ruler  is  a 
Nicholas  I.  Little  did  he  dream  of  another  Nicho- 
las whose  Russia,  in  1918,  would  become  a  wilder- 
ness of  Bolshevik  barbarism.  The  parallel  is 
ghastly — Nicholas  the  first  and  second;  Wilhelm 
first  and — second  or  last ! 


CHAPTER  III 

Hohenzollern  Education — House  Law  of  Kings — 
1848 — Imperial  Crown  Rejected  by  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  IV.,  1849 — Revolution  Suppressed  and 
Autocracy  Triumphant 

HPHE  house  of  Hohenzollern  is  remarkable 
*  amongst  European  dynasties  because  of  the 
persistence  with  which  they  have  pursued  a  fixed 
policy,  and  still  more  because  of  the  family  dis- 
cipline which  they  have  exercised  over  a  long  line 
of  rulers. 

Between  the  first  and  last  of  the  Hohenzollerns 
have  appeared  exceptions;  very  few,  however, 
and  these  have  but  intensified  the  faith  of  their 
successors  in  rule  by  divine  right,  or  in  other  words 
— the  sword.  A  Prussian  prince  at  the  age  of  ten 
is  already  buttoned  up  in  the  "King's  coat,"  and 
drilled  on  the  Potsdam  parade;  and  from  that 
time  on  he  is  merely  one  more  Prussian  officer 
over  whom  the  King  has  power  of  life  and  death 
— of  promotion  or  degradation — of  happiness  or 
misery.  Nor  would  any  Hohenzollern  wish  it 

ii 


12        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

otherwise.  Frederick  II.,  when  young,  did,  it  is 
true,  seek  to  desert  from  the  army;  but  he  lived 
to  regret  the  follies  of  his  youth  and  in  his  old  age 
to  make  the  military  yoke  an  ornament  dear  to 
Prussians. 

The  Hohenzollern  ruler  owes  allegiance — not  to 
his  people,  much  less  to  a  constitution — but  first, 
last,  and  uninterruptedly  to  the  dynasty  whose 
law  is  embodied  in  successive  mandates  or  testa- 
mentary epistles  piously  treasured  and  expounded 
for  the  benefit  of  the  next  in  order  of  succession. 
The  law  of  the  land  is  that  which  governs  the 
people  in  their  civil  relations;  but  the  house  law 
of  the  Hohenzollerns  is  one  that  is  from  above 
and  is  known  only  to  the  initiate  who  draw  author- 
ity from  heaven.  There  is  a  strange  and  almost 
paradoxical  analogy  between  the  pretensions  of  a 
Lutheran  King  on  the  Spree  and  a  Papal  Bishop 
on  the  Tiber — each  claims  to  rule  by  right  divine, 
each  claims  to  be  above  the  civil  or  common  law, 
and  each  has  a  canon  or  house  law  known  only 
to  the  initiate  and  expounded  only  by  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  Holy  Majesty.  In  each  of  these 
dynasties  have  happened  momentary  exceptions, 
to  which  loyal  chroniclers  have  referred  as  regret- 
table acts  of  weakness;  but  in  general  the  policy 
of  Rome,  as  that  of  Berlin,  has  been  consistently 


Breaks  His  Sword  13 

one  of  autocracy.  Of  course,  the  corollary  to  this 
is  that  whilst  Pope  and  Kaiser  suppress  liberty 
amongst  their  own  subjects,  they  as  energetically 
encourage  rebellion  elsewhere  whenever  a  political 
advantage  may  be  thereby  secured. 

When  Wilhelm  I.  fled  from  Berlin  in  1848,  he 
was  the  target  for  many  lampoons — he  being  held 
responsible  for  the  order  to  fire  upon  the  people 
who  had  assembled  in  front  of  the  palace,  to  cheer 
the  King,  his  brother.  There  had  been  much 
confusion  at  the  palace,  and  reports  of  what  hap- 
pened are  conflicting;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Wilhelm  urged  vehemently  the  immediate 
massacre  of  all  civilians  who  dared  disobey  the 
police;  that  he  flung  his  sword  in  a  rage  at  the 
King's  feet  and  declared  his  uniform  dishonoured 
by  the  cowardly  concessions  made  to  a  mob. 

The  details  of  this  revolution  are  in  my  History 
of  the  German  Struggle  for  Liberty,  a  book  which, 
to  my  surprise,  gave  offence  to  Wilhelm  II.  on  its 
appearance  in  1896.  Without  therefore  more  than 
noting  the  interesting  fact  that  this  revolution 
was  practically  bloodless  excepting  for  the  military 
provocation,  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  those  who 
met  in  congress  at  Frankfort  (1849)  to  frame  a 
constitution  for  the  new  Fatherland  demanded 
that  there  should  be  a  United  States  of  Ger- 


14        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

many  and  that  its  head  should  wear  an  Imperial 
Crown. 

But  the  canon  law  of  the  Hohenzollern  deemed 
it  sacrilege  to  recognize  the  people  as  other  than 
dutiful  subjects.  Their  code  taught  that  it  was 
for  the  King  to  graciously  give  and  for  the  people 
dutifully  to  accept.  The  parliamentary  deputa- 
tion was  therefore  treated  as  an  unauthorized 
band  of  impertinent  busybodies;  the  Prussian 
regiments  had  meanwhile  been  quietly  mobilized; 
Wilhelm  I.  (then  Crown  Prince)  had  been  recalled 
from  England  under  vows  of  loyalty  to  the  new 
order  of  things  and  very  soon  the  last  vestige  of 
democracy  disappeared — and  the  last  of  the 
democrats  dreamed  their  dreams  behind  the  bars 
of  Prussian  prisons  or  on  emigrant  ships  bound 
for  Milwaukee  by  way  of  Hoboken. 

Wilhelm  I.  was  only  two  months  in  exile  when 
loud  clamour  arose  for  his  recall — and  with  him 
the  same  regiments  that  had  fired  on  the  people. 
Wilhelm  I.  had  not  changed — he  was  consistent 
throughout  his  life.  The  people  had  had  a  momen- 
tary brain  storm  like  the  tantrums  of  a  child,  but 
it  was  soon  over;  and  the  same  mob  that  yesterday 
yearned  for  a  republic,  today  glorified  their  abso- 
lute monarch  and  hastened  to  forget  all  but  the 
hereditary  loyalty  of  a  servile  race. 


Return  to  Berlin  15 

Wilhelm  once  more  commanded  his  well-drilled 
Prussians.  The  King  (Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.), 
who  but  a  few  weeks  before  had  paraded  the  streets 
of  his  capital  dressed  in  the  colours  of  the  revolu- 
tion, now  ordered  his  troops  to  hunt  down  every- 
thing that  looked  other  than  monarchical — whether 
in  Prussia  or  in  neighbouring  German  states. 
Wilhelm  acquitted  himself  of  this  task  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Yunker  party  and  particularly 
of  his  brother-in-law  Nicholas  of  Russia,  who  was 
very  angry  with  Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.  for  his 
weakness  in  regard  to  the  Berlin  mob.  Indeed 
he  needed  but  slight  provocation  to  have  marched 
a  Russian  army  against  the  German  Republic  as 
he  gladly  did  against  that  of  Hungary — and  most 
bloodily  did  he  do  his  work  amongst  the  Magyars. 

And  so  closes  the  year  1849 — fifty-three  years 
had  passed  in  the  life  of  Wilhelm  I.  and  he  felt 
happy  that  Russia  and  Prussia  were  now  staunch 
allies  in  the  cause  of  autocracy  on  earth  and  a 
German  God  in  heaven. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Romanoff  and   Hohenzollern — Conspiracy  of  Auto- 
crats— Russian    Aid    to    Prussia — Polish 
Insurrection 

HTHE  personal  ties  which  bound  the  courts  of 
-••  Peterhof  and  Potsdam  for  half  a  century 
were  founded  not  merely  in  sympathetic  blood 
kinship  but  in  a  common  dread  of  civil  liberty. 
In  those  days  the  mere  word  Constitution  meant 
chaos  to  both  Nicholas  and  Wilhelm,  and  while 
the  Hohenzollerns  have  been  compelled  on  rare 
occasions  to  mention  that  hated  name  in  public 
it  was  only  to  gain  time — much  as  we  rattle  a 
measure  of  oats  before  the  horse  whom  we  desire 
to  coax  from  the  pasture.  In  1815,  at  the  outset 
of  the  Waterloo  campaign,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  III. 
solemnly  promised  his  people  a  constitution. 
They  believed  him — and  he  broke  his  pledge.  In 
1848  his  successor  renewed  the  promise,  but  in 
the  year  following  forgot  it.  Wilhelm  I.  did  the 
same  when  the  opportunity  offered.  Indeed  one 

16 


Napoleon  III.  and  Nicholas  I.    17 

must  feel,  in  reading  Hohenzollern  history,  that 
every  concession  to  the  people  was  made  with  a 
mental  reservation  which  permitted  the  King  to 
tear  up  any  such  contract  the  moment  he  felt 
himself  out  of  danger. 

Yet  we  are  here  considering  rulers  of  otherwise 
respectable  lives — who  gave  their  time  loyally 
to  the  duties  of  their  high  station — who  never 
scandalized  the  world  as  did  the  latter-day  French 
kings  by  wasting  the  people's  taxes  on  frivolous 
amusement  and  shameless  women.  Nicholas  and 
his  successor  (Alexander  II.)  held  the  creed  of 
autocracy  as  an  inherited  faith  and  they  loyally 
helped  their  Hohenzollern  neighbour  because 
together  they  represented  sound  and  safe  govern- 
ment. 

In  1830  the  Czar  felt  so  much  offended  at  Louis 
Philippe  for  accepting  his  crown  from  the  people 
that  he  refused  to  address  him  with  the  formula 
of  "my  brother."  And  when  Louis  Napoleon  be- 
came Emperor  (1852)  he  was  even  more  indignant; 
and  he  precipitated  the  Crimean  War  as  a  puni- 
tive expedition  against  an  insolent  rival  who  had 
dared  to  accept  an  Imperial  crown — not  from  the 
hand  of  God,  but  from  a  popular  vote.  Nicholas 
died  of  a  broken  heart  (1856)  in  the  midst  of  a 
war  which  humiliated  his  autocratic  pride;  for 


1 8        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

like  Wilhelm  II.,  in  1914,  he  had  anticipated  an 
easy  victory  over  the  French  and  English  and  a 
correspondingly  valuable  triumph  of  his  pet  prin- 
ciples. Prussia  helped  Nicholas  by  a  neutrality 
so  benevolent  that  it  prevented  Austria  from 
joining  France  and  England;  and  for  this  she 
reaped  substantial  aid  in  her  own  day  of  need. 
Let  us  anticipate  and  dismiss  the  Russian  element 
in  Prussian  events  by  reminding  the  student  that 
when  (1859)  Napoleon  III.  gave  Italy  her  unity, 
he  puzzled  Europe  by  a  sudden  armistice  imme- 
diately after  two  successful  battles  at  Soiferino 
and  Magenta.  Why  should  Napoleon  withdraw 
before  a  defeated  Austrian  army,  asked  the  un- 
initiated? These  must  be  referred  to  the  Hohen- 
zollern  or  Romanoff  archives — if  so  be  any  have 
escaped  the  red  reformers.  Neither  Russia  nor 
Prussia  could  endure  the  triumph  of  a  popular 
movement  in  Italy,  much  less  a  disaster  to  Austria 
that  might  once  more  raise  up  a  republic  in  Hun- 
gary and  popular  agitation  in  Bohemia.  Conse- 
quently rumblings  of  war  reached  Napoleon  in 
Piedmont  and  still  more  ominous  rumours  of 
rebellion  reached  the  ears  of  Franz  Josef.  Each 
was  equally  keen  to  close  the  contest  in  Italy,  the 
one  for  the  sake  of  his  German  frontier,  the  other 
to  look  after  his  polyglot  subjects.  But  neither 


Polish  Rebellion,  1863        ,  19 

the  French  nor  the  Austrian  monarchs  published 
the  real  reasons  of  their  truce. 

In  1863  Berlin  and  Moscow  once  more  proved 
the  force  of  their  union,  when  bleeding  Poland 
was  fighting  desperately  for  freedom — one  of  those 
periodic  struggles  in  which  peasants  armed  only 
with  pitchforks  and  hatred  of  the  oppressor  hurl 
themselves  against  the  guns  of  well-drilled  troops 
and  die  with  liberty  on  their  lips.  Poland  has 
been  for  more  than  a  century  the  unwilling  victim 
of  Prussification  on  one  side  and  Russification  on 
the  other;  and  the  result  has  been  but  one  more 
proof  that  whilst  bodies  may  be  enslaved  and 
minds  oppressed  by  ignorance,  the  spirit  is  a  thing 
of  God  and  therefore  defies  all  human  tyrants. 
Poland  battled  fiercely  for  two  years.  She  might 
have  battled  longer  had  Russia  been  her  only 
enemy,  but  again  in  this  matter  Prussia  and  Russia 
acted  as  one;  and,  while  Alexander  II.  bore  the 
odium  of  wholesale  executions  and  deportations 
to  Siberia,  history  must  permit  a  large  share  to 
his  partner  Wilhelm  I.,  who  placed  at  Russia's 
disposal  an  admirable  secret  police  and  a  frontier 
force  whose  business  it  was  to  hunt  down  such 
Poles  as  had  taken  refuge  on  German  soil  and  hand 
them  back  to  their  tormentors. 

In  1864  Russia  stood  by  benevolently  whilst 


20        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Prussia  consummated  the  rape  of  Denmark  and 
in  1866  the  work  of  defeating  Austria  at  Sadowa 
was  the  more  complete  because  of  the  knowledge 
that  all  Prussian  troops  could  be  safely  withdrawn 
from  her  eastern  border.  In  1870  again  Russia 
was  a  powerful  factor,  for  she  not  merely  main- 
tained benevolent  neutrality  towards  her  Potsdam 
partner,  but  was  prepared  to  check  Austria  had 
she  chosen  to  seize  this  opportunity  for  wiping 
out  the  disgrace  of  1866. 

Thus  we  may  note  that  throughout  the  life  of 
Wilhelm  I.,  from  the  day  when  he  fled  with  his 
mother  to  the  headquarters  of  Alexander  I.,  on 
the  Memel  (1806-1807),  down  and  through  the 
days  of  Metz  and  Sedan,  he  had  ever  at  his  elbow 
a  loyal  and  well-armed  ally  who  step  by  step 
watched  the  progress  of  Prussia,  kept  her  true  to 
the  teachings  of  autocracy,  helped  her  to  destroy 
one  rival  after  another  until  from  being  a  puny 
state  of  five  million  souls  (1807)  she  rose  within 
the  lifetime  of  one  man  to  the  rank  of  a  mighty 
Empire  with  a  population  of  more  than  fifty  mil- 
lions, an  army  the  most  powerful  in  the  world, 
more  than  a  million  square  miles  of  tropical  colony, 
and  a  navy  second  only  to  that  of  Great  Britain. 

Wilhelm  I.  never  failed  to  manifest  the  gratitude 
he  owed  to  his  Muscovite  brother.  He,  at  least, 


Prussian  Gratitude  to  Russia     21 

carried  to  his  grave  the  knowledge  that  the  glory 
of  his  long  reign — even  his  crown — he  owed  to  a 
Romanoff.  On  this  account  it  was  that  with  his 
last  breath  he  adjured  his  grandson  to  keep  the 
peace  with  Russia,  no  matter  how  great  might 
be  the  provocation  to  war.  Wilhelm  II.  was 
mindful  of  these  monitions  and  more  than  once 
vehemently  insisted  that  under  no  conceivable  cir- 
cumstances would  he  ever  act  otherwise — but  then 
this  form  of  vehemence  was  made  before  1896! 
What  must  now  be  the  reflections  of  him  who  rudely 
brushed  aside  every  outstretched  hand  in  1914; 
who  broke  the  pledge  made  at  the  deathbed  of  a 
venerated  grandfather;  who  invaded  Russia  with 
a  recklessness  only  second  to  the  perfidy  with 
which  he  inundated  neutral  Belgium;  who  laughed 
at  treaties  as  mere  scraps  of  paper;  who  referred 
to  the  British  army  as  "contemptible"  and  to  an 
American  intervention  as  negligible!  Wilhelm  II. 
may  find  comfort  in  the  thought  that  his  agents 
have  successfully  propagated  the  doctrine  of  anar- 
chy in  Russia;  have  reduced  her  to  a  state  of 
economic  helplessness  and  set  back  the  clock  of 
civilization  to  the  days  of  Ivan  the  Terrible. 

German  writers — at  least  those  of  them  seeking 
favour  at  court — have  dealt  very  sparingly  with 
the  subject  of  Prussian  dependence  on  Russia. 


22        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

On  the  contrary,  since  1870,  and  notably  since 
the  accession  of  Wilhelm  II.  (1888),  scarce  a  profes- 
sor of  history  but  has  made  a  bid  for  preferment 
by  furnishing  detailed  and  wearisome  proof  that 
since  the  Russian  is  of  an  obviously  inferior  Kultur 
it  is  the  divine  mission  of  those  whose  Kultur  is 
higher  to  intervene  and  thus  help  the  neighbouring 
empire  by  Prussification.  These  historic  effusions 
have  been  of  slight  value  in  themselves,  but  they 
have  become  powerful  adjuncts  when  utilized  by 
the  propaganda  bureau  of  Berlin.  Then  they 
multiply  into  millions  of  leaflets — they  are  made 
part  of  every  German's  breakfast  through  the  col- 
umns of  an  officially  supervised  press;  the  police, 
the  clergy,  and  the  department  of  education  en- 
courage a  public  sentiment  by  means  of  which 
some  day  war  upon  Russia  may  be  welcomed  by 
the  people  as  not  merely  the  duty  of  a  higher 
civilization  towards  a  lower  one,  but  as  one  pro- 
mising enormous  material  reward  at  a  compara- 
tively small  cost.  For  thirty  years  I  have  heard 
this  matter  discussed  by  merchants,  by  masters 
in  ethnography,  by  professors  of  history,  and— 
what  is  more  important — by  officers  about  the 
court.  Each  group  discusses  from  its  own  angle 
of  vision,  but  the  determining  group  takes  orders 
from  the  War  Department.  Public  sentiment 


Makes  Public  Sentiment         23 

may  be  artificially  roused  and  maintained  over 
many  years,  but  the  soldier  times  his  movements 
by  the  information  secured  by  spies,  and  declares 
war  when  he  feels  sure  that  he  has  a  superiority 
over  any  and  all  probable  enemies. 

And  now  let  us  leave  Russia  and  return  to 
Wilhelm  I. — still  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia. 


CHAPTER  V 

Accession  of  Wilhelm  I. — His  Coronation — 

Parliamentary  Friction — Decides  to 

Abdicate 

TN  1857  Wilhelm  I.  at  last  secured  his  opportun- 
*  ity  through  the  mental  collapse  of  his  older 
brother  (Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.).  This  brother 
had  so  scandalously  coquetted  with  partisans  of 
liberalism,  constitutionalism,  and  other  isms  hate- 
ful to  the  military  aristocracy  that  it  needed  little 
more  to  have  caused  a  palace  revolution  in  favour 
of  the  warlike  Wilhelm — a  revolution  that  would 
have  been  justified  in  Yunker  eyes  on  the  ground 
that  the  monarchy  could  not  otherwise  be  pre- 
served. Indeed  the  mental  and  political  eclipse 
of  Wilhelm's  elder  brother  caused  little  chagrin 
anywhere;  for  while  the  new  autocrat  was  dis- 
liked as  a  mere  barrack-room  graduate,  the  fat 
and  fatuous  predecessor  had  promised  reforms 
which  he  had  not  executed  and  had  jailed  or  exiled 
all  those  who  had  dared  to  remind  him  of  broken 
promises.  He  was  unsoldierly  in  appearance  and 

24 


Wilhelm  I.  Becomes  King       25 

temperament;  discoursed  volubly  on  symbolism 
in  theology;  posed  as  a  connoisseur  in  art  and  fell 
an  easy  prey  to  courtiers  who  flattered  adroitly. 
Meanwhile  the  Prussian  army  was  neglected  and 
no  one  chafed  more  on  this  account  than  the 
Crown  Prince,  who  cared  little  for  any  art  that 
went  beyond  the  practical  needs  of  an  efficient 
army. 

The  moment  that  Wilhelm  I.  laid  his  hand  on 
the  rudder  the  ship  of  state  sailed  steadily;  there 
was  no  more  shaking  in  the  wind  for  there  were 
no  more  drowsy  quartermasters.  From  1857  to 
his  death  in  1888  Prussia  moved  forward  on  her 
journey;  now  tacking  against  head  winds,  now 
followed  by  favouring  gales,  sometimes  without 
an  observation  but  always  under  the  control  of  a 
master  whose  daring  was  tempered  by  a  prudence 
born  of  much  sad  experience  and  a  life  which 
seemed  patriarchically  extended. 

He  was  sixty  years  old  when  called  to  the 
regency — he  was  sixty-four  when  the  death  of  his 
brother  enabled  him  (1861)  to  feel  completely 
safe  from  interference.  In  that  year  he  became 
de  jure  no  less  than  de  facto  King  of  Prussia.  He 
seized  the  crown  with  his  own  hands  directly  from 
the  altar  of  God.  Hitherto  he  had  been  compelled 
to  drop  a  word  now  and  then  which  recognized 


26        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

the  share  of  his  people  in  the  government  of  their 
country.  That  time  was  now  past  and  Wilhelm 
der  Grosse,  Wilhelm  der  Siegreiche,  came  forth 
from  the  Schlosskirche  of  Konigsberg  like  another 
Siegfried  armed  by  Heaven  with  a  sword  destined 
to  prove  redoubtable  not  only  to  the  enemy  be- 
yond his  frontiers,  but  even  more  so  to  those  of 
his  brother  Germans  who  subsequently  questioned 
his  overlordship.  And  this  Hohenzollern  entered 
upon  a  career  of  military  triumphs  at  an  age  when 
in  many  armies  men  are  pensioned  for  old  age. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  stormy  year  of  his 
coronation,  when  at  the  Altar  of  his  Lutheran 
Wotan  he  drew  the  sword  of  absolute  monarchy 
and  shouted  to  his  people  that  henceforth  there 
was  but  one  law — his  will.  He  knew  there  was 
a  Prussian  Parliament  and  that  1848  had  plagued 
his  brother  with  a  so-called  constitution.  He 
had  no  objection  to  popular  delegates  meeting 
and  talking  so  long  as  they  voted  his  military 
budget  and  asked  no  further  questions.  But  the 
delegates  of  1861  had  still  much  of  the  spirit  of 
1848,  and  political  independence  had  not  yet 
disappeared  so  completely  as  it  was  destined  to 
under  the  persistent  poundings  of  a  Bismarck. 
The  Prussian  delegates  were  loyal;  but,  unfor- 
tunately for  themselves,  their  loyalty  was  mani- 


Prussian  Army  Reorganized     27 

fested  more  to  the  constitution  than  to  their  King 
— and  as  the  constitution  is  a  thing  made  by 
human  hands,  and  a  crown  comes  from  divine 
ones,  Wilhelm  I.  saw  his  duty — and  he  did  it. 

He  consulted  no  cabinet  ministers  or  parliamen- 
tary committees,  but  decided  ex  proprio  motu  that 
the  Prussian  army  should  be  immediately  reor- 
ganized, be  increased  in  numbers,  and  that  univer- 
sal service  should  be  for  three  years.  He  did  not 
stoop  to  consult  those  who  constitutionally  repre- 
sented the  purse  of  the  people;  he  saw  no  reason 
why  he  should  prepare  the  public  mind  for  a 
largely  increased  army,  a  heavier  burden  of  per- 
sonal service,  and  above  all  a  tax  of  unprecedented 
proportions.  It  seemed  to  him  sufficient  that  he 
should  demand"  the  money;  it  was  their  business 
to  obey  the  King  and  vote  accordingly.  In  Eng- 
land such  a  king  would  have  been  arrested,  tried, 
and  decapitated.  But  in  Berlin  the  people,  in 
Parliament  assembled,  went  no  further  than  to 
vote  a  protest — and  this  was  a  degree  of  self- 
assertiveness  wholly  unknown  hitherto  save  in 
the  one  momentary  spasm  of  1848. 

The  King  demanded  money  for  his  army  and 
the  common  people  dared  to  deny!  (  He  demanded 
a  second  time;  the  request  was  again  denied,  nor 
was  this  all — the  other  German  states  were  in 


28        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

a  ferment  of  liberalism  that  bordered  ominously 
on  discontent,  not  so  say  revolution.  The  police 
had  done  their  dirty  duty  of  hunting  down  not 
merely  those  who  had  helped  the  men  of  1848  but 
any  on  whose  premises  had  been  found  pamphlets 
disrespectful  to  the  authorities.  Germany  in 
general  and  Prussia  in  particular  bore  the  outward 
appearance  of  a  complete  political  calm  ever  since 
Wilhelm  had  scattered  the  rebels  (1849)  in  Baden. 
This  period  is  known  to  Germans  as  the  period  of 
Reaction,  when  the  outward  military  calm  was 
more  than  made  up  by  a  fierce  and  cruel  persecu- 
tion of  all  things  politically  liberal.  This  persecu- 
tion was  conducted  secretly,  at  night,  by  police 
agents  and  judges  who  knew  that  their  promotion 
would  be  proportionate  to  the  zeal  they  showed  in 
exterminating  the  pestiferous  champions  of  con- 
stitutional liberty. 

Wilhelm  I.,  in  1862,  faced  a  situation  for  which 
his  purely  military  training  had  but  feebly  pre- 
pared him.  He  needed  money  for  the  army  yet 
this  money  was  in  a  way  kept  from  him  by  a  con- 
stitution granted  by  his  brother,  who  also  was 
divine!  How  much  of  his  divinity  clung  to  this 
uncomfortable  constitution?  Should  he  attack 
these  fragments  in  order  to  save  the  larger  di- 
vinity embodied  in  his  own  majesty?  Should  he 


Abdication  ?  29 

send  to  jail  the  impudent  mob  of  M.  P.'s — or  better 
still  have  them  shot  for  lese  majeste  ?  And  if  he 
did  so,  what  would  be  the  effect  outside  of  his 
Yunkers  and  the  army?  He  had  had  a  taste  of 
one  revolution — could  it  possibly  happen  again? 

Wilhelm  stood  alone  in  this  crisis,  and  as  usual, 
with  men  of  his  holy  attributes,  he  prayed  to  the 
God  of  his  family.  He  could  not — would  not— 
yield  or  compromise.  Rather  than  parley  with 
a  vile  mob  of  civilians,  he  would  break  his  sword — 
abdicate.  And  so  Wilhelm  decided  to  abdicate. 
This  he  did  at  Babelsberg  near  Potsdam,  his 
little  imitation  Windsor  castle  that  is  embowered 
in  a  park  laid  out  on  an  English  pattern.  In  this 
little  oasis  of  rustic  relaxation,  contrasting  agree- 
ably with  the  stiff  pseudo-French  terraces  and 
allees  of  Sans  Souci,  Wilhelm  wrote  out  his  promise 
to  resign  in  favour  of  his  son — later  known  as 
Unser  Fritz  and  as  Emperor,  Frederic  the  Noble — 
the  son-in-law  of  Queen  Victoria. 

What  if  the  crown  had  passed  in  1862  to  the 
youthful  husband  of  an  English  Princess!  How- 
ever, such  visions  are  for  the  dramatist;  we  are 
concerned  with  history.  Wilhelm  I.  prayed  for 
help  and — Enter  Bismark! 


CHAPTER  VI 

Bismarck  Becomes  Chief  Minister — Prussia  without 
a  Constitution — Military  Reform  in  Earnest 

A  X  7ILHELM  I.  received  Bismarck  as  an  answer 
to  prayer;  but  whether  his  prayer  reached 
heaven  or  the  place  whence  Faust  welcomed  Mephis- 
topheles,  is  a  problem  whose  untangling  depends 
upon  the  political,  not  to  say  theological  angle 
from  which  the  student  approaches  this  turning 
point  in  German  history.  In  each  case  the  result 
was  profitable — for  a  very  brief  period.  Bismarck 
came  to  Wilhelm  and  raised  him  from  despair  to 
a  height  of  worldly  glory  rarely  achieved  and  never 
surpassed  by  any  monarch  of  modern  times.  But 
the  price  had  to  be  paid — in  1918! 

Wilhelm  was  sixty-five  and  Bismarck  forty- 
seven  years  of  age  when  they  met  for  their  momen- 
tous contract  in  September  of  1862.  The  robust 
and  resolute  diplomat  was  fresh  from  eminently 
satisfactory  missions  to  both  Petersburg  and 
Paris.  At  the  court  of  Alexander  he  cemented 

30 


Bismarck  and  lago  31 

even  more  closely  the  confidential  relations  unit- 
ing these  two  autocracies,  and  his  visit  to  Louis 
Napoleon  gave  him  the  assurance  that  in  any 
prospective  difficulty  with  Denmark  or  Austria, 
Prussia  need  fear  no  harm  from  either  of  these 
neighbours.  It  was  not  probable  in  his  mind 
that  England  would  act  alone — consequently  his 
problem  as  a  Prussian  was  comparatively  simple — 
to  secure  such  a  military  preponderance  as  would 
check,  if  not  crush  Austria,  and  thus  raise  Prussia 
to  the  leadership  of  all  German  states. 

Bismarck  was  not  merely  soldierly  in  appearance, 
but  he  owed  much  of  his  power  and  popularity 
to  an  lago  species  of  blunt,  even  brutal,  frankness. 
In  his  moments  of  most  cunning  and  duplicity 
he  could  simulate  such  splendid  bursts  of  per- 
secuted virtue  as  to  draw  heart-felt  hosannas  from 
millions  who  had  never  seen  him;  and  to  mystify 
even  seasoned  parliamentarians.  They  knew  from 
experience  that  his  fame  as  an  uncompromising 
monarchist  was  deeply  tinged  with  an  equally 
uncompromising  manner  of  supporting  his  argu- 
ments with  the  weapons  of  the  duelling  ground. 
Bismarck  had  honestly  earned  the  reputation  of 
bully  amongst  the  colleagues  who  had  enjoyed 
the  honour  and  misfortune  of  sharing  the  same 
conference  table — though  not  the  same  views. 


32        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

No  one  knew  the  tricks  of  the  jury  lawyer  better 
than  this  Yunker.  He  practiced  the  art  of  weak- 
ening the  opposing  cause  by  browbeating  and 
discrediting  its  representative;  and  this  in  so 
public  a  manner  as  to  drive  him  discomfited  from 
the  field.  There  is  a  famous  German  painting 
which  may  in  counterfeit  be  seen  in  most  German 
hamlets,  representing  Bismarck  at  the  moment 
of  his  culminating  triumph,  dictating  terms  of 
peace  after  the  collapse  of  the  French  Empire 
(1870-71).  The  iron  Chancellor  alone  fills  the 
exulting  eye  of  his  admirers.  He  towers  in  rugged 
forcefulness  over  a  shrunken  little  old  man  whose 
natural  proportions  seem  reduced  even  more  by 
the  vast  arm-chair  into  which  he  collapses.  Bis- 
marck is  in  full  Prussian  armour — the  reincarna- 
tion of  Thor,  Wotan,  Siegfried — the  ancestral 
type  that  has  displaced  the  blessed  Saviour  in 
modern  Germany  and  substituted  a  polytheistic 
Walhalla  where  Wagnerian  choirs  chant  of  blood, 
and  an  iron  Chancellor  marks  time  on  a  noisy 
anvil.  Modern  Germany  is  fired  by  this  majestic 
picture;  for  she  sees  there  a  symbol  of  her  do- 
minion over  other  countries.  The  little  crumpled- 
up  enemy  in  the  bottom  of  the  big  chair  is  to  us 
an  honoured  name,  that  of  Thiers — historian, 
statesman,  patriot.  To  the  Teuton  he  represents 


Bismarck  Opposes  Abdication    33 

merely  an  insignificant  fragment  of  a  vanishing 
race,  a  puny  Frenchman  whose  land  will  soon  be 
known  as  a  German  province — another  Posen, 
another  Sleswick,  another  Alsace ! 

Wilhelm  was  at  one  with  Bismarck  on  the  com- 
mon purpose  of  achieving  the  undisputed  autoc- 
racy of  the  Hohenzollerns ;  of  arming  the  country 
for  a  struggle  with  Austria  and  finally  for  achiev- 
ing the  military  headship  or  hegemony  of  Prussia. 
Yet  Wilhelm  shuddered  slightly  at  the  prospect 
of  this  partnership;  not  because  Bismarck  was 
likely  to  prove  unequal  to  his  part  of  the  contract, 
but  rather  because  the  venerable  King  dreaded 
that  his  prospective  chancellor  would  hurry  him 
along  with  too  much  violence;  and  precipitate 
quarrels  before  the  time  to  fight  had  sounded  on 
the  great  gong  of  Hohenzollern  destiny.  On  this 
memorable  September  morn  of  the  year  1862, 
Bismarck  found  his  King  alone  pacing  a  path 
between  the  palace  and  the  Havel,  which  here 
spreads  into  a  pleasing  lake.  The  King  had  in 
his  hand  the  paper  on  which  he  had  written  out 
his  abdication.  He  read  this  to  Bismarck,  who 
advised  him  to  tear  it  up.  The  King  commenced 
to  do  so  and  dropped  the  fragments  into  a  little 
stream  that  runs  through  the  estate.  Bismarck, 
however,  promptly  picked  out  each  little  scrap, 


34        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

thus  furnishing  immediate  evidence  to  Wilhelm 
that  this  noisy  negotiator  could  show  caution 
greater  even  than  his  own.  The  whole  situation 
was  then  discussed  as  between  a  patient  who  has 
tried  all  medicines  in  vain  and  a  doctor  whose 
treatment  is  known  to  be  heroic. 

Wilhelm  had  high  standards  of  honour — as 
understood  by  a  Prussian.  He  was  a  cordial 
believer  in,  if  not  author  of,  the  jingo  jingle  that 
vibrates  today  with  undiminished  meaning  in 
every  officer  s  mess : 

Gegen  Demokmten 
Helfen  nur  Soldaten 

or  in  our  language,  there's  no  good  democrat  but 
a  dead  one.  Wilhelm  would  gladly  march  out 
and  shoot  down  every  man,  woman,  or  child  who 
by  act  or  innuendo  reflected  on  his  divine  right, 
but  how  reach  a  parliamentary  majority  whose 
pestiferous  behaviour  was  protected  by  the  solemn 
oath  of  his  God-fearing,  ever  to  be  remembered 
and  illustrious,  resting  in  the  bosom  of  Wotan, 
brother  Frederick  William  IV. !  Even  he  could  not, 
unaided,  commit  such  a  crime  as  nullifying  the 
act  of  a  divine  predecessor.  A  Prussian  officer 
could  not  break  his  word  of  honour,  his  Ehrenwort! 
But  Bismarck  soon  made  it  clear  to  his  patron, 


Break  the  Constitution          35 

that  his  word  of  honour  would  suffer  no  harm. 
The  parliament  would  not  vote  his  military  bud- 
get? Very  well,  we'll  do  without  parliament! 
But  what  about  the  constitution  granted  by  the 
resting-in-God  predecessor?  Bismarck  promised 
to  look  after  that — the  King  should  have  no  wor- 
ries from  disloyal  deputies — he  could  now  give  his 
undivided  attention  to  a  reform  of  the  army — yes, 
it  was  perhaps  a  trifle  irregular  to  abolish  a  con- 
stitution— but  then  what  was  a  trifle  like  this 
compared  with  the  ultimate  benefit  to  his  army — 
why  let  a  scrap  of  paper  stand  between  an  honour- 
able King  and  the  achievement  of  his  glorious 
troops!  And  thus  piety  and  perplexity  fought 
for  mastery  in  the  soldierly  bosom  of  Wilhelm. 
He  listened  as  one  who  would  gladly  share  in  the 
result  of  a  crime,  but  would  be  more  glad  if  the 
odium  were  borne  by  others.  It  was  with  joy 
that  the  pious  old  King  recognized  at  last  the  one 
subject  who  not  only  shared  all  his  hatred  of  popu- 
lar government  but  also  his  desire  to  gag  both 
parliament  and  press — more  than  that,  Bismarck 
agreed  to  face  the  mob  in  and  out  of  the  forum 
and  in  any  case  to  be  the  scapegoat  if  he  failed. 

And  thus  was  the  compact  sealed  between 
master  and  man — a  compact  that  was  loyally  held 
for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century — and  which 


36        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

forms  one  of  the  most  remarkable  friendships  in 
kingly  chronicle.  And  now  the  curtain  rolls  down 
on  the  first  act  in  the  drama;  and  the  man  who 
wrote  his  abdication  in  1862  closed  his  eyes  on 
an  empire  where  monuments  to  his  glory  were, 
in  1888,  more  than  the  days  in  a  year. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Bismarck — His   Policy   and   his   Manners — Prussian 

Violation  of  Denmark  and  the  League  of 

Nations  in   1864 

N  JO  one  fact  in  history  can  be  understood  save 
1  ^  in  its  relation  to  all  other  facts ;  and  to  push 
this  argument  even  further  we  might  insist  that 
no  historic  fact  is  less  important  than  another. 
The  surrender  of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown  was  the 
logical  outcome  of  a  conflict  between  the  British 
Crown  and  the  descendants  of  those  English  who 
landed  on  Plymouth  Rock  in  1620.  The  surren- 
der of  Lee  at  Appomattox  (April  of  1865),  concludes 
a  chapter  commencing  with  the  introduction  of 
the  African  on  American  soil ;  but  it  opens  another 
and  more  serious  one:  what  to  do  with  the  negro 
now  that  he  is  free!  The  violation  of  Belgian 
neutrality  by  Wilhelm  II.,  in  1914,  stands  as  a 
landmark  in  criminology,  but  it  is  inseparably 
linked  with  that  pleasant  day  in  September  of 
1862  when  the  grandfather  of  Wilhelm  II.  gave 

37 


38        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

one  of  many  instances  where  treaties  have  been 
but  scraps  of  paper — in  Hohenzollern  eyes. 

Bismarck  now  faced  his  Prussian  Parliament 
with  the  comfortable  secret  that  whichever  way 
they  voted  or  declaimed  he  had  in  Wilhelm  a  power 
capable  of  supporting  him  even  if  the  streets  of 
Berlin  ran  once  more  with  blood.  He  thundered 
from  the  ministerial  tribune  on  the  importance 
of  a  stronger  army;  on  the  mission  of  Prussia  to 
guard  the  interests  of  all  Germany;  on  the  union 
of  all  her  little  principalities  under  Hohenzollern 
leadership.  It  was  on  the  3Oth  of  this  memorable 
month  that  he  unmasked  his  parliamentary  bat- 
teries and  bellowed  forth  to  an  astonished  world 
that:  great  problems  of  state  are  not  solved  by 
debates  or  by  majorities  but — by  BLOOD  and  IRON  ! 
He  spoke  this  to  a  parliamentary  majority  that 
was  sick  of  blood  and  iron,  and  that  answered 
him  by  once  more  declining  to  pass  his  war  budget. 
Blood  and  Iron  has  been  a  part  of  German  creed 
ever  since  1871,  but  in  1862  it  was  repulsive,  for 
it  savoured  of  Russian  methods  to  a  people  who 
had  not  yet  been  educated  out  of  the  humanities. 
Bismarck  was  a  forceful  speaker — very  direct— 
with  a  fund  of  homely  similes  drawn  mainly  from 
country  life.  In  conversation  he  was  illuminating 
from  the  variety  of  his  travel  and  the  notable  men 


Blood  and  Iron  39 

whom  he  had  met;  but  his  chief  charm  lay  in  his 
explosions  of  wrath  and  consequent  indiscretions 
which  were  greedily  garnered  and  put  in  circula- 
tion by  the  Boswells  of  Berlin.  How  far  the 
great  Chancellor's  anger  was  feigned  it  would  be 
presumptuous  to  enquire.  But  he  was  a  Prussian; 
and  my  experience  leads  me  to  think  that  he  acted 
according  to  the  instincts  of  his  tribe  in  lashing 
himself  into  the  appearance  of  outward  rage  in 
order  to  help  intimidate  such  as  were  to  face  him. 
I  have  seen  such  men  amongst  Kaffir  tribes,  who 
painted  their  bodies  to  resemble  demons  and  who 
danced  ferociously  and  emitted  savage  yells  be- 
fore going  into  battle.  In  my  youth  I  noted 
amongst  Prussian  schoolmasters  the  custom  of 
simulating  anger  in  order  to  impress  children. 
Officers  cultivate  a  vicious  guttural  snarl  when 
addressing  their  docile  troops  and  even  the  railway 
servants  answer  the  questions  of  travellers  after 
the  manner  of  men  who  do  not  wish  to  be  confused 
with  mere  civilians.  In  my  later  years  I  have 
found  this  interesting  survival  of  ancestral  bar- 
barism illustrated  by  the  behaviour  of  German 
professors  and  titled  officials  one  towards  the  other 
when  assembled  for  scientific  or  literary  inter- 
course. Here  also  the  pundit,  whose  conclusions 
are  not  shared  by  a  colleague,  adopts  the  tribal 


40        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

manner  of  spitting  at  his  academic  opponent;  of 
questioning  his  veracity  and,  finally,  of  denounc- 
ing him  as  a  pig  or  camel — in  short,  following  the 
methods  usual  amongst  Baltic  aborigines.  Deal- 
ing as  I  am  in  relative  concepts  I  can  explain  only 
by  remarking  that  men  of  the  great  race  do  not 
act  as  bullies  when  addressing  a  parliamentary 
body;  they  do  not  habitually  cultivate  brutal 
manners  towards  enlisted  men;  they  do  not  seek 
to  intimidate  school  children,  much  less  do  they 
fly  into  a  passion  when  differing  on  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions or  an  error  in  the  fifth  dimension. 

Bismarck,  like  his  master — (and  perhaps  both 
in  imitation  of  the  Czar  Nicholas) — always  culti- 
vated a  warlike  dress  no  less  than  a  barrack  room 
speech.  No  German  member  of  Parliament  could 
ever  have  entertained  a  high  opinion  of  his  own 
importance;  but  whatever  of  dignity  might  have 
been  his,  on  taking  his  seat,  was  soon  dispelled 
when  Bismarck  in  the  uniform  of  a  Pomeranian 
cuirassier  reared  his  glittering  crest  before  them; 
rested  one  hand  on  his  cavalry  sabre;  raised  a 
large  glass  of  brandy  and  water  in  the  other  and 
knitted  his  brows  after  the  manner  of  a  judge 
about  to  pronounce  sentence  of  death.  And  then 
followed  words  meant  as  a  scourge  to  the  mem- 
bers, who  listened  like  sulky  schoolboys.  Nor  did 


Bismarck's  Oratory  41 

Bismarck  mind  their  sulkiness.  On  the  contrary, 
his  talk  was  the  better  for  every  contradiction. 
A  hostile  house  made  him  the  more  thirsty;  and 
before  the  end  of  his  harangue,  and  the  brandy 
and  water,  he  had  risen  to  such  a  state  of  exalta- 
tion and  pugnacity  that  the  roomful  of  people's 
delegates  shrank  into  shabby  insignificance — hope- 
lessly overwhelmed  by  the  magisterial  manner 
and  martial  accessories  of  their  King's  chief 
minister.  True,  they  still  persisted  in  their  obsti- 
nate clamour  for  the  rights  granted  them  by  the 
constitution;  but  Bismarck  soon  drew  away  the 
attention  of  their  constituencies  to  schemes  far 
more  interesting  than  parliamentary  budgets. 
He  first  secured  an  edict  forbidding  political 
gatherings,  excepting  of  course  those  in  his  favour. 
Then  he  made  every  newspaper  an  instrument  of 
his  policy,  not  merely  by  forbidding  any  criticism 
of  his  methods,  but  by  organizing  a  press  propa- 
ganda which  soon  educated  a  tame  people  to 
forget  the  heroes  of  national  liberty  and  to  think 
better  of  such  as  preached  salvation  through 
Blood  and  Iron. 

And  thus  we  come  to  the  year  1864  when  Prussia 
marched  an  army  into  Denmark  in  a  moment  of 
profound  peace;  overran  the  southern  and  by 
far  the  richer  half;  annexed  the  strategic  line  from 


42        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Kiel  on  the  Baltic  to  the  North  Sea,  and  then 
coolly  turned  upon  an  astonished  and  mildly 
indignant  world  with  the  complacent  smile  of  who 
would  say:  "And  what  are  you  going  to  do  about 
it!" 

England,  Russia,  France,  Austria — all  the  so- 
called  Great  Powers  of  Europe  had  solemnly 
joined  with  Prussia  (May  8,  1852)  in  signing  at 
London  a  treaty  whose  prime  feature  was  a  joint 
guarantee  of  Danish  integrity.  Much  the  same 
sort  of  treaty  had  been  signed  also  in  London  (1831) 
referring  to  Belgium,  and  each  treaty  was  violated 
successively  by  Prussia  when  the  opportune 
moment  offered  for  a  war  of  spoliation. 

The  year  1864  was  the  psychological  one  for 
Prussia — which  means  that  her  army  was  fit  for 
the  field  and  the  neighbouring  "great  Powers" 
not  likely  to  interfere.  England  was  indignant  and 
vented  her  feeling  violently.  Indeed  the  audacity 
of  Prussia  fairly  took  the  breath  from  John  Bull- 
it  was  something  wholly  beyond  his  pacifistic 
horizon — it  was  illegal — it  was  outrageous — it 
demanded  immediate  police  interference — it  could 
not  be  endured  and  much  more  to  the  same  effect. 
But  when  the  Russian  Cabinet  invited  the  British 
to  make  a  move,  Queen  Victoria  would  not  listen 
to  any  suggestion  of  war.  She  loved  peace,  par- 


Victorian  Pacifism  43 

ticularly  so  when  peace  was  the  thing  most  fer- 
vently desired  by  Prussia,  for  whose  King  she  felt  a 
sympathy  more  than  cousin  german.  Little  did 
Victoria  dream  of  the  blood  that  would  be  shed 
by  her  brave  subjects  in  consequence  of  this  policy 
dictated  by  emotional  pacifism.  How  could  she, 
good  mother  and  conscientious  Queen,  imagine 
that  the  habit  of  breaking  treaties  and  violating 
the  territory  of  weaker  neighbours  would  become 
chronic  in  the  land  made  holy  to  her  by  the  love 
she  bore  to  her  German  consort.  England  stood 
by,  consenting  to  the  spoliation  of  Denmark  (1864) ; 
and  her  wise  men  wept  at  the  crime;  and  they 
blushed  at  their  share  in  it ;  for  whilst  Continental 
Powers  might  find  apologists  in  such  a  matter,  to 
the  glory  of  Great  Britain  be  it  said,  that  her 
statesmen  in  our  time  have  been  men  of  clean 
hands  and  truthful  tongues. 

Our  Civil  War  was  then  threatening  to  leave 
North  America  a  divided  and  exhausted  conglom- 
erate of  disorganized  communities;  and  Napoleon 
III.  had  a  French  army  in  Mexico  whose  osten- 
sible reason  was  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  Maxi- 
milian but  whose  ultimate  purpose,  it  was  feared, 
had  something  to  do  with  a  campaign  across  the 
Rio  Grande  and  annexation  of  whatever  might  be 
secured  from  the  wreck  of  our  States. 


44         Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Austria  had  been  dragged  into  the  Danish  cam- 
paign by  diplomatic  means  highly  creditable  to 
the  talents  of  the  Prussian  negotiators.  She  sent 
a  force  rather  by  way  of  watching  what  the  army 
of  her  rival  might  do,  than  with  any  interest  of 
her  own  at  stake,  and  of  course  quickly  discovered 
that  she  had  been  made  a  dupe  of  Bismarck  who 
only  used  her  for  the  sake  of  appearances  and 
cast  her  aside  when  his  object  had  been  secured. 
Nicholas  was  dead,  but  his  successor  continued  the 
same  intimate  personal  relations  with  Wilhelm  I. 
that  had  subsisted  for  now  nearly  a  whole  gen- 
eration. Alexander  II.  was  profoundly  grateful 
to  Wilhelm  for  Prussian  aid  in  suppressing  the 
Polish  rebellion  and  to  the  same  extent  angry 
at  Napoleon  III.  for  encouraging  it;  he  was  pre- 
pared therefore  to  cordially  support  Prussia  in 
her  rape  of  Denmark — and  he  did  this  in  many 
quiet  ways,  for  his  foreign  policy  was  guided  by 
a  statesman  of  rare  vision  and  very  smooth  man- 
ners, an  older  than  Bismarck  and  a  less  turbulent 
one — Prince  Gortschakoff — who  pressed  heavily 
on  Austria — so  heavily  that  Franz  Josef  did  not 
dare  to  make  a  move.  In  Paris  he  passed  the 
word  around  that  if  Napoleon  III.  intervened  he 
would  have  to  reckon  with  more  than  one  enemy. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  a  Russian  fleet  made 


Czar  Checks  Napoleon  III.      45 

its  appearance  in  American  waters,  and  stirred  the 
Northern  States  to  infinite  enthusiasm  because 
that  fleet  was  by  some  mysterious  means  made 
to  indicate  the  present  purpose  of  Czar  Alexander 
to  ally  himself  with  the  forces  of  Uncle  Sam  in 
case  of  any  hostile  move  on  the  part  of  Napoleon. 
Nothing  was  put  on  paper;  and  Gortschakoff  was 
able  to  shrug  his  shoulders  and  treat  the  matter 
as  a  mere  coincidence;  but  no  man  knew  better 
than  himself  the  enormous  moral  effect  of  that 
fleet — not  merely  in  Washington,  but  above  all  in 
Paris.  And  thus  it  came  about  through  a  dozen 
different  causes,  each  of  them  inextricably  wound 
about  antecedent  ones,  that  in  1864  the  great 
"League  of  Nations"  stood  by  motionless  whilst 
helpless  little  Denmark  was  beaten,  robbed,  and 
mutilated  by  one  of  its  own  members. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Napoleon  III.  and  Victor  Emmanuel — Eugenie  and 
the  Crimean  War — Cavour  and  Bismarck 

FT  would  indeed  have  been  a  bold  prophet  who, 
*  in  the  midst  of  our  Civil  War,  should  have 
predicted  a  moment  within  his  own  life  when  an 
American  President  would  take  a  seat  in  the  palace 
of  Louis  XIV.,  with  delegates  from  China  and 
Japan  to  say  nothing  of  European  states — all 
united  for  the  purpose  of  doing  justice  to  Belgium. 
In  1864  America's  interest  in  foreign  affairs  was 
negative.  We  held  as  our  national  creed  the 
opinion  that  no  state  of  Europe  should  meddle 
with  affairs  of  our  continent,  and  to  the  same  extent 
we  would  have  declined  to  assist  Denmark  in  her 
struggle  against  Prussia;  however  much  we  might 
have  sympathy  with  a  people  of  liberal  constitu- 
tion defending  herself  against  an  absolute  monar- 
chy. Paradoxically,  however,  we  hotly  resented 
the  presence  of  French  troops  in  Mexico,  although 
their  master  Napoleon  III.  was  at  that  time 

46 


Napoleon  in  Mexico  47 

acclaimed  in  more  cities  than  Paris  as  the  friend 
of  down-trodden  Poland  and  the  liberator  of  Italy. 
To  push  the  paradox  further  still,  let  us  here  claim 
that  Italy's  glorious  position  today  as  a  free  and 
independent  great  power  is  the  work  very  largely 
of  Wilhelm  I.  of  Prussia  and  Napoleon  III.  of 
France.  We  have  pointed  out  that  the  invasion 
of  Denmark  in  1864  was  but  preliminary  war 
practice  in  order  to  make  sure  of  the  Prussian 
Army  when  the  time  should  come  (1866)  for  an 
attack  on  Austria.  Italy  at  that  moment  also 
sought  an  occasion  for  attacking  the  enemy  who 
then  ruled  the  Venetian  states,  and  what  more 
natural  than  that  Bismarck  and  Wilhelm  I.  should 
unite  with  Cavour  and  Victor  Emmanuel  in  the 
double  purpose  of  expelling  the  Hapsburgs  from 
Germany  and  securing  an  ally  in  Italy. 

When  we  say  what  more  natural,  we  speak  not 
for  Wilhelm,  but  for  Bismarck.  The  power  of 
Prussia  in  Hohenzollern  eyes  rested  wholly  on 
her  army;  the  power  of  Victor  Emmanuel  reposed 
upon  the  loyalty  of  a  turbulent  yet  trustful  and 
liberty  loving  people.  Many  Italians  attacked 
Cavour  for  being  conservative,  others  abused  him 
for  being  a  hotspur.  It  was  a  day  of  illiteracy, 
suspicion,  and  lawlessness  in  much  of  Italy, 
and  for  that  reason  we  must  marvel  that  out  of 


48        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

what  seemed  political  chaos  emerged  finally  the 
figure  of  a  monarch  ruling  a  free  and  united  people 
from  the  Alps  to  Sicily  and  from  Genoa  to  the 
Adriatic.  What  my  grandchildren  study  as  the 
past  is  to  me  the  story  of  my  own  life,  for  as  a 
child  my  ears  caught  the  fervid  shouts  of  welcome 
for  the  allied  armies  returning  triumphant  from 
Magenta  and  Solferino  (1859);  and  in  Paris  many 
were  the  popular  songs  linking  the  two  liberators, 
Napoleon  and  Victor  Emmanuel. 

Cavour  stands  out  as  one  of  the  world's  great 
men  because  he  not  only  achieved  what  Bismarck 
achieved,  the  unity  of  his  country,  but  he  achieved 
all  this  and  much  more  without  ever  violating  the 
constitution  or  alienating  the  love  of  his  people. 
Bismarck  and  Cavour  were  both  great  men — the 
Prussian  believed  that  his  people  could  be  ruled 
only  by  the  dread  of  punishment ;  the  Piedmontese 
proved  that  an  appeal  to  his  people's  patriotism 
and  love  of  liberty  was  enough.  Both  men 
achieved  the  end  they  sought,  Cavour  through 
lawful  methods,  Bismarck  through  blood  and  iron. 
Must  we  conclude  that  each  was  right — that 
Cavour  appealed  to  reason  because  his  people  are 
of  a  higher  human  type?  The  Iron  Chancellor 
has  done  much  to  encourage  this  view, — and  the 
great  war  has  done  more  still. 


Napoleon  III.  as  Revolutionist   49 

Napoleon  III.  in  his  youth  had  rushed  to  the 
ranks  of  the  Carbonari,  in  order  to  fight  against 
the  two  autocratic  powers  who  then  oppressed 
the  disunited  states  of  Italy  (1830) — Austria  and 
the  Pope.  The  revolutionary  bands  were  hunted 
down  and  the  youthful  prince  narrowly  escaped 
in  disguise;  but  ever  after,  he  cherished  a  chival- 
rous desire  to  assist  in  the  restoration  of  national 
unity  amongst  the  states  of  Europe.  From  Italy 
he  made  his  way  to  Poland  where  the  patriots 
desired  him  to  be  their  King.  But  before  this 
coronation  could  take  place  the  Russian  Czar 
had  put  an  end  to  Polish  plans  no  less  completely 
than  had  those  of  Italy  been  damped  by  the 
autocrat  of  Vienna.  The  story  of  Napoleon  does 
not  belong  here  save  by  way  of  contrast  to  that 
of  Wilhelm.  In  1848  the  same  revolution  that 
drove  Pius  IX.  from  Rome  placed  Louis  Napoleon 
on  the  steps  of  an  imperial  throne.  As  member 
of  the  Carbonari  he  had  incurred  the  curse  of  the 
Pope;  but  between  1830  and  1848  he  had  spent 
much  time  in  political  pondering  and  plotting. 

He  was  in  a  desperate  situation;  tossed  up  by 
the  turbulent  waves  of  a  frenzied  political  tide  to 
a  post  which  he  owed  partly  to  his  name  and  partly 
to  many  utterances  in  favour  of  popular  govern- 
ment. That  a  Napoleon  should  remain  member 


50        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

of  a  republican  committee  for  long  was  incredible, 
and  so  he  prayed  for  help — as  Wilhelm  did  four- 
teen years  later,  and  with  analogous  results. 
Bismarck  came  at  the  cry  of  Wilhelm,  and  when 
the  excommunicated  Napoleon  piously  pleaded 
for  any  rope  that  might  lift  him  to  a  throne — it 
was  reached  down  to  him  by  Pius  IX.  This  rope 
proved  a  noose,  as  all  may  read  who  are  permitted 
to  read  other  than  expurgated  editions.  The 
Pope  helped  Napoleon,  it  is  true,  but  Popes  expect 
payment.  Napoleon  paid  by  handing  over  to  a 
Papal  priesthood  the  children  of  France  and  by 
sending  a  French  army  (1849)  to  scatter  the  repub- 
lican army  of  Mazzini — and  restore  a  theocratic 
monarch  to  a  temporal  throne.  Then  followed 
the  marriage  with  the  beautiful  but  very  shallow 
Eugenie  (1853)  who  delighted  the  shopping  dis- 
tricts of  Paris  by  her  extravagance;  but  gave  still 
more  joy  to  the  Papacy  by  an  ardent — I  had  al- 
most said  atavistic — enthusiasm  for  everything 
mediaeval  and  priestly  in  France.  The  union  of 
Napoleon  with  a  beauty  so  frail  and  bigoted  was 
for  France  a  calamity  almost  equal  to  that  of  the 
bargain  with  Pius.  She  bore  him  but  one  boy, 
a  delicate  artificial  thing  resembling  her  in  face 
no  less  than  character.  But  while  she  could  do 
little  to  dignify  a  throne  or  provide  for  posterity, 


Eugenie  and  her  Bigotry        51 

she  surrounded  herself  and  her  weak  husband  with 
men  whose  allegiance  was  first  to  the  Pope  and 
after  that,  to  their  country. 

No  sooner  was  Napoleon  squarely  seated  on  his 
throne  (1852)  than  he  looked  about  him  for  the 
means  of  making  that  throne  look  less  parvenu 
in  the  eyes  of  the  scrupulous — and  it  was  just  at 
that  moment  that  Nicholas  of  Russia  insisted 
autocratically  on  his  right  to  control  the  various 
places  where  miracles  were  said  to  have  been 
performed  by  early  Christian  martyrs.  The 
matter  was  of  small  consequence,  seeing  that  the 
soil  of  Palestine  had  been  systematically  spaded 
for  several  centuries  after  the  death  of  our  Blessed 
Saviour,  and  Europe  flooded  with  graveyard 
products  alleged  to  be  bones  of  saints  and  martyrs; 
to  say  nothing  of  timber  by  the  ton,  all  certified 
as  having  been  part  of  the  true  Cross.  If  the 
pious  autocrat  of  the  Greek  Church  found  pleasure 
in  supporting  the  cost  of  guarding  part  of  the 
Sultan's  territory,  it  would  seem  that  Christianity 
at  large  owed  each  of  them  gratitude,  especially 
as  the  religion  of  Mahomet  had  displaced  Christian- 
ity in  those  parts  for  more  than  a  thousand  years. 
But  Eugenie  saw  in  this  an  opportunity  for  a 
crusade  of  Rome  against  the  Russian  heretic. 
Her  husband  saw  an  opportunity  of  humiliating 


52        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

a  Czar  who  had  grudgingly  recognized  his  right 
to  the  throne,  and  both  rejoiced  at  the  prospect 
of  an  alliance  with  the  very  correct  Queen  of  Eng- 
land and  the  equally  legitimate  Victor  Emmanuel 
in  a  war  (1853-1856)  that  was  destined  to 
humiliate  the  most  military  empire  of  the  world; 
to  give  hope  and  courage  to  down-trodden  Balkan 
states;  and  to  stir  profoundly  the  sentiment  of 
Italy  in  favour  of  unity  under  Victor  Emmanuel. 
And  this  brings  us  to  the  close  of  the  Crimean  War. 


CHAPTER  IX 
How  Cavour  Created  Italy 

/^AVOUR  and  Bismarck  resembled  one  another 
^^  in  each  being  a  farmer,  cultivating  their 
estates  scientifically  yet  profitably;  and  each 
necessarily  familiar  with  the  economic  needs  of 
that  part  of  the  population  on  whose  prosperity 
the  safety  of  the  state  reposes  with  most  security. 
The  deplorable  condition  of  country  life  in  America 
may  be  largely  traced  to  more  than  half  a  century 
of  legislation  at  the  hands  of  town-bred  lawyers, 
reformers  from  the  big  cities,  and  agents  of  rail- 
ways and  factories.  The  greatness  of  Cavour,  like 
that  of  Washington,  rests  less  upon  the  sum  of 
their  respective  achievements  than  their  courage, 
not  to  say  audacity,  in  undertaking  an  imperial 
task  with  implements  most  provincial.  Cavour 
like  Bismarck  worked  each  under  a  king  of  patriotic 
and  warlike  nature,  but  monarchs  have  more  at 
stake  than  any  subject;  and  more  than  once  the 
plans  of  the  prime  minister  nearly  collapsed  through 

53 


54        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

a  shrinking  of  the  monarch  from  the  consequences 
of  a  signature.  Now  that  both  of  these  statesmen 
have  achieved  their  uncon tested  positions,  we 
may  safely  say  that  great  as  was  their  diplomatic 
and  political  tasks,  they  were  less  arduous  than 
in  overcoming  the  scruples  of  their  respective 
sovereigns  at  certain  critical  moments. 

Little  Sardinia  of  1848  under  her  gallant  King 
Charles  Albert  bore  to  the  mighty  Hapsburg 
Empire  the  relative  importance  of  Nicaragua  to 
the  United  States.  Few  knew  where  it  was — still 
fewer  cared.  Cavour,  however,  did  not  hesitate 
to  profit  by  the  year  of  revolution  to  declare  war 
at  once  upon  Austria  and  her  ally,  the  Pope.  It 
was  a  war  for  civil  liberty  and  national  unity;  it 
failed  on  the  field  of  battle,  but  national  honour 
survived  as  it  did  in  Belgium  when  her  brave 
peasantry  dared  for  a  moment  check  the  over- 
whelming invasion  of  1914.  The  failure  of  Cavour 
in  1848  coupled  with  that  of  Belgium  in  the  Great 
War  leave  few  lessons  for  the  strategist ;  but  they 
are  of  infinite  encouragement  to  those  in  public 
life  who  introduce  reforms,  suffer  political  defeat, 
live  for  a  time  under  a  cloud  of  social  ostracism; 
yet,  by  patiently  pushing  forward  on  the  same 
line  and  overcoming  the  mists  of  prejudice  and 
misunderstanding,  they  finally,  as  did  Cavour, 


Italian  Progress  55 

reconquer  the  confidence  of  a  free  people  and  are 
the  stronger  for  what  each  has  endured.  Not 
the  least  of  Cavour's  triumphs  was  the  notable 
stability  of  the  Sardinian  or  Piedmontese  throne 
when  those  of  Berlin  and  Vienna  rocked  under 
revolutionary  movement.  When  a  monarch  is 
one  with  his  people  the  word  revolution  is  never 
heard — people  do  not  insurge  against  themselves! 
They  go  to  the  polls  and  elect  men  more  to  their 
liking — these  make  changes  in  the  policy  of  the 
cabinet — the  King  wisely  invites  the  co-operation 
of  ministers  responsible  to  Parliament — and  thus 
for  nearly  a  century  Italy  has  from  year  to  year 
improved  her  economical  condition,  strengthened 
her  military  position,  achieved  her  unity,  and  above 
all  found  strength  in  herself  to  insist  upon  the  right 
of  the  state  to  regulate  the  education  of  her  child- 
ren— many  years  in  advance  of  France  in  this  last 
matter. 

In  1852  Cavour  became  prime  minister  at  the 
age  of  forty-two,  having  in  the  four  previous  years 
persistently  educated  his  people  to  the  importance 
of  keeping  religious  matters  out  of  politics  and 
working  together  loyally  for  civil  liberty  at  home 
and  the  expulsion  of  Austria  from  Italian  soil. 
In  1853  his  opportunity  once  more  arrived — when 
Austria  arbitrarily  sequestered  the  property  of 


56        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Italians  who  had  been  suspected  of  rebellious  acts 
or  words,  Cavour  boldly  demanded  the  restitution 
of  these  estates,  or  at  least  evidence  that  they  had 
been  seized  according  to  law.  Victor  Emmanuel 
bravely  seconded  his  minister  and  every  court  of 
Europe  was  made  to  hear  of  Sardinia's  audacity 
and  Austria's  disingenuousness.  Italians  were 
still  smarting  from  their  military  disasters  of 
1848  and  1849  (Custozza-Novara),  but  they  rallied 
loyally  to  the  same  King  and  the  same  political 
leader  for  another  venture  that  looked  equally 
hopeless. 

In  1853  the  Crimean  War  began  to  loom  on  the 
diplomatic  horizon — a  joyful  sunburst  for  Cavour. 
He  lost  no  time  in  securing  the  assent  of  his  King 
to  a  project  which  he  dared  whisper  to  no  one  else ; 
and  when  (1854)  England  turned  to  him  for  aid, 
he  offered  immediately  an  Italian  corps  of  fifteen 
thousand.  It  had  been  proposed  that  these  troops 
should  be  regarded  as  merely  mercenaries  hired 
for  the  war  and  added  to  the  British  forces  without 
more  importance  than  those  hireling  Germans 
who  sold  themselves  to  George  III.  (1775-1783) 
in  order  to  earn  money  by  crushing  the  American 
efforts  at  independence.  The  history  of  Germany 
is  the  history  of  mercenary  armies  from  the  Lanz- 
knechts  of  Charles  V.  to  the  Hessians  who  sur- 


Italians  not  Hirelings  57 

rendered  at  Saratoga  and  Yorktown.  But  Italians 
are  not  German;  and  Cavour  proudly  threw  back 
the  insulting  proposal  emanating  from  a  singu- 
larly ill-advised  and  very  Germanized  court,  sub- 
stituting one  of  his  own,  that  the  Piedmontese 
army  should  fight  side  by  side  with  British  and 
French,  as  allies  of  a  sovereign  state,  not  as  hire- 
lings. 

Napoleon  III.  immediately  supported  the  view 
of  Cavour  and  England  yielded,  little  dreaming 
how  far  reaching  would  prove  the  effect  of  this 
very  small  and  ostensibly  very  barren,  not  to  say 
comical,  alliance  of  little  Sardinia  with  her  two 
overshadowing  partners. 

And  barren  indeed  seemed  the  fruits  of  this 
bloody  and  costly  campaign  to  the  little  state 
under  the  Alps.  So  barren  were  the  fruits  and 
so  bloody  the  war  that  a  Wilhelm  would  have  had 
to  fly  in  disguise  to  the  shelter  of  an  alien  flag. 
But  not  so  Victor  Emmanuel  and  Cavour.  The 
Crimean  War  added  nothing  to  Italian  territory; 
not  even  could  she  compel  Austria  to  do  justice 
in  regard  to  the  estates  she  had  arbitrarily  seized. 
But  the  moral  triumph  was  superb  when  at  the 
conference  of  the  Great  Powers  in  Paris  (1856) 
the  representative  of  this  little  overlooked  Pied- 
mont sat  as  an  equal;  and,  there,  in  the  face  of 


58        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

all  Europe  boldly  brought  forward  the  cause  of 
oppressed  nationalities  and  demanded  that  Italy 
be  considered. 

Here  at  last  was  heard  for  the  first  time  in  many 
centuries  a  challenge  flung  forth  in  the  name  of 
humanity  by  one  helpless  man  speaking  for  one 
helpless  people — but  that  one  man  was  a  Cavour; 
and  his  King  from  that  moment  became  not  merely 
the  champion  of  little  Piedmont  but  the  heaven- 
sent saviour  of  a  new  and  reunited  country  whose 
purified  capital  was  to  be  a  depapalized  Rome. 


CHAPTER  X 

More  about  Cavour  and  Napoleon  III.  and  how 
Wilhelm  Profited  by  the  Blindness  of  France 

"\  1  TlLHELM'S  increasing  power  was  aided  so 
remarkably  by  the  paradoxical  policy  of 
France  in  his  time  that  we  must  again  call  atten- 
tion to  Napoleon  III.  as  an  element  in  the  creation 
of  United  and  Irresistible  Germany.  The  Napo- 
leon of  1858  was  ostensibly  the  strongest  military 
monarch  on  the  Continent.  He  stood  for  Imperial- 
ism nominally  based  upon  universal  franchise. 
He  had  sent  his  troops  to  Italy  (1849)  in  order  to 
suppress  the  republic  of  Rome  and  had  on  its 
ruins  restored  the  hated  autocracy  of  Pius  IX. 
Yet,  the  same  year  that  Wilhelm  of  Prussia  be- 
came Regent  (1858),  and  inaugurated  compre- 
hensive army  reforms,  the  French  Emperor  called 
Cavour  to  him  and  together  they  conspired  for 
thirty-six  hours  in  secret  on  a  war  very  agreeable 
to  Prussia,  humiliating  to  Austria,  and  never 
pardoned  by  the  Pope.  Official  propaganda  has 

59 


60        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

falsified  history  so  much  in  Hohenzollern  interest 
that  we  cannot  often  enough  emphasize  the  almost 
incredible  blindness  of  the  French  Emperor  who 
was  incapable  of  penetrating  the  peaceful  profes- 
sions of  Prussia  and  who  felt  so  secure  on  his  Rhine 
frontier  that  he  persistently  wasted  his  military 
power  in  far-away  wars  and  woke  up  finally  (1870) 
to  find  Wilhelm  at  his  throat  and — no  weapon  at 
hand.  Cavour  came  to  Napoleon  when  he  was 
undergoing  a  cure  in  the  Alsatian  mountains  and 
easily  persuaded  him  to  march  an  army  into  Pied- 
mont in  the  spring  of  1859,  expel  the  Austrians, 
and  be  hailed  as  the  liberator  of  Italy;  just  as, 
in  1857,  he  had  set  free  Rumania  and,  earlier 
(1830)  had  offered  his  sword  to  insurgent  Poland. 
In  the  same  breath,  however,  that  he  conspired 
to  strip  autocratic  Austria  of  her  Italian  provinces, 
he  (or  should  we  say  Eugenie?)  strictly  insisted 
that  the  Papal  autocracy  should  not  be  disturbed 
at  Rome:  Cavour  knew  his  Italy  well — Napoleon 
knew  it  only  as  he  knew  Bismarck — superficially. 
And  therefore  the  minister  of  Victor  Emmanuel 
promised  everything,  knowing  that  his  country's 
primemeed  was  the  mere  expulsion  of  the  alien 
Austrian.  After  that,  events  would  shape  them- 
selves quite  independently  of  popes  or  emperors. 
Napoleon  desired  no  reward  for  his  quixotic 


The  Curtsey  to  Eugenie         61 

labours,  but  for  the  sake  of  political  prestige  at 
home  thought  it  well  that  Cavour  should  cede 
him  a  bit  of  territory — say  Nice  and  Savoy — which 
was  of  course  done.  And  then  to  cement  the  good 
fellowship,  Victor  Emmanuel  ceded  his  royal  daugh- 
ter to  wed  the  French  Emperor's  cousin.  This 
was  indeed  Napoleon's  first  triumph  on  other  fields 
than  politics  and  war.  To  him  it  meant  what  the 
alliance  with  an  Austrian  archduchess  had  meant 
to  his  uncle — a  patent  of  legitimacy.  Of  course 
it  was  a  hard  fate  for  the  Savoy  Princess  to  marry 
into  a  court  whose  throne  was  occupied  by  a  bas- 
tard adventurer  and  a  woman  of  no  princely  pres- 
tige. Amongst  the  sacrifices  of  Italian  patriots 
on  the  altar  of  their  country's  greatness,  history 
does  honour  to  the  names  of  Victor  Emmanuel, 
Cavour,  Garibaldi  and  Mazzini,  but  surely  every 
woman  will  remember  also  the  supreme  sacrifice 
of  Princess  Clotilde  curtseying  to  the  ground 
before  a  social  inferior  whom  the  whirligig  of  a 
Paris  revolution  had  tossed  into  an  Imperial  bed. 
Napoleon  and  Victor  Emmanuel  returned  each 
in  triumph  to  his  respective  capital — the  French 
Emperor  enriched  by  military  glory,  and  aja  addi- 
tion not  merely  to  the  territory  of  France  but  to 
the  social  prestige  of  his  court;  Victor  Emmanuel 
returned  from  Magenta  and  Solferino  sharing  the 


62        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

profound  disappointment  of  Cavour  at  having 
achieved  but  an  imperfect  peace ;  for  the  Venetian 
territory  remained  in  Hapsburg  hands  and  the 
Roman  states  in  bondage.  Time,  however,  worked 
after  armies  had  apparently  demobilized;  and 
never  did  she  gallop  more  furiously  than  in  the 
few  months  remaining  to  Cavour.  He  was  destined 
to  pass  away  in  June  of  1861,  cut  off  when  only 
sixty  years  of  age;  but  as  though  to  sweeten  the 
last  moments  of  his  remarkable  life,  God  crowded 
into  Italian  history  a  series  of  popular  triumphs 
unparalleled  even  by  the  Germany  of  1866-1870. 
Garibaldi  was  encouraged  (1860)  in  the  famous 
expedition  that  wrested  Sicily  from  the  Bourbons 
and  in  a  short  time  caused  all  of  Southern  Italy 
to  proclaim  its  independence  and  its  desire  to  join 
the  free  federation  headed  by  Victor  Emmanuel. 
The  example  of  Naples  fired  all  the  rest  of  Italy; 
and,  in  1861,  a  National  Congresss  proclaimed 
liberty  to  all  Italians;  hailed  Victor  Emmanuel 
as  their  King,  and  designated  Rome  as  the  only 
possible  capital  of  this  great  and  free  union.  Some 
portion  of  this  proclamation  was  deferred  until 
1866,  some  until  1870,  and  some  is  waiting  fulfil- 
ment as  these  lines  are  being  penned  (1919),  but  on 
June  5,  1 86 1,  Cavour,  with  his  last  breath,  uttered 
words  of  confidence  in  the  future  of  his  conntry. 


Death  of  Cavour  63 

He  died  in  the  arms  of  a  loving  nation.  Strong 
men  wept  as  for  their  father  and  of  those  who 
gazed  upon  his  coffin  none  saw  through  a  heavier 
mist  of  tears  than  his  loyal  and  courageous  King. 

We  of  America  were  in  a  distracting  war  of  our 
own,  between  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  and  the 
first  battle  of  Bull  Run.  We  were  in  a  fight  for 
union,  but  knew  as  little  of  Italy  then  as  we  do 
now  of  patriotic  movements  in  China. 

Of  Garibaldi  we  had  but  a  hazy  idea  that  he 
wore  a  semi-cowboy  dress  and  made  trouble 
whenever  the  opportunity  offered.  England  at 
that  time  gave  no  encouragement  to  the  struggling 
states  whom  Cavour  was  uniting — indeed  much  of 
the  Victorian  Court  rather  resented  any  popular 
disturbance  although  in  a  platonic  way  favourable 
to  constitutional  liberty.  The  more  credit  then 
to  the  immortal  Cavour  and  the  more  glory  to  the 
first  King  of  United  Italy,  the  courageous  Victor 
Emmanuel. 


CHAPTER  XI 

How   Bismarck  Humbugged  Napoleon  before   1866 

and  how  Italy  Profited — The  Sceptre  Passes 

from  France  to  Prussia 

NTOT  long  before  his  death  Cavour  penned 
*  ^  these  lines  to  the  talented  Comtesse  de 
Circourt,  whose  drawing-room  was  then  famous 
for  wit  and  beauty.  We  may  regard  his  words  as 
a  summary  of  his  life  work  no  less  than  a  key  to 
the  success  that  has  followed  in  the  wake  of  Italy's 
liberal  policy,  when  contrasted  with  that  of  ' '  blood 
and  iron"  so  frequently  and  noisily  proclaimed  in 
Potsdam  during  the  same  period. 

It  is  my  belief  [wrote  Cavour]  that  with  a  parlia- 
mentary majority  one  can  do  many  things  unattain- 
able in  a  mere  autocracy.  Thirteen  years  of  this 
work  has  convinced  me  that  an  honest  and  energetic 
ministry  has  much  to  gain  from  parliamentary  opposi- 
tion provided  that  its  hands  are  clean  and  that  it 
does  not  allow  itself  to  be  frightened  by  the  extremists 
of  either  party.  Never  have  I  felt  my  weakness  more 
than  when  parliament  was  not  sitting.  Besides,  how 

64 


Excommunication  65 

could  I  be  false  to  my  antecedents  and  cast  aside  the 
principles  of  a  lifetime?  I  am  the  child  of  Liberty 
and  it  is  to  her  that  I  owe  all  that  I  am. 

Little  wonder  then  that  the  King,  who  tolerated 
such  a  torch  bearer,  should  have  been  excommuni- 
cated, that  even  the  parish  priest  who  attended 
Cavour  on  his  death-bed  should  have  been  pun- 
ished; and,  indeed,  every  Italian  treated  as  a  bad 
Catholic  if  he  preferred  the  flag  of  his  country  to 
that  of  the  Pope. 

We  have  had  little  to  say  of  Mazzini,  Garibaldi, 
and  other  champions  of  liberty  in  Italy  because 
we  do  not  wish  to  lose  ourselves  in  digression; 
and,  moreover,  much  as  we  honour  those  men  for 
their  courage  and  the  purity  of  their  motives,  we 
cannot  escape  the  conclusion  that  had  either  of 
them  been  in  control,  their  country  would  yet 
be  a  conglomerate  of  discordant  principalities. 
We  have  but  to  imagine  John  Brown  of  Ossawa- 
tomie  in  the  chair  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  picture 
the  course  of  Italian  history  under  the  rule  of  such 
undisciplined  visionaries  as  the  gallant  Garibaldi 
and  the  wholly  impracticable  Mazzini. 

Wilhelm  had  no  sooner  taken  breath  after  his 
raid  into  Denmark  (1864)  than  Bismarck  placed 
himself  in  friendly  and  very  confidential  relations 
with  the  secret  societies  of  Italy,  promising  them 


66        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

that  if  they  would  attack  Austria  in  the  spring 
of  1866,  he  would  help  them  from  north  of  the 
Alps.  With  equal  zeal  he  stirred  the  Hungarians 
to  insurrection  and  would  no  doubt  have  also 
incited  the  Austrian  Poles  to  rise  did  he  not  fear 
a  fire  that  might  attack  his  own  barns. 

With  consummate  adroitness  he  again  paid  his 
court  to  Napoleon  and  played  the  part  of  a  stupidly 
frank  but  very  entertaining  clown.  The  Empress 
enjoyed  his  daring  stories  and  when  he  was  gone 
said :  C'est  un  drole  de  corps  I 

"He's  a  madman,"  was  the  sententious  conclu- 
sion of  her  husband.  And  so  this  .crafty  clown 
made  the  acquaintance  of  all  that  was  worth 
knowing  about  the  persons  who  made  up  the 
France  of  that  day  and,  in  many  confidential  chats 
over  good  cigars,  Napoleon  III.  was  completely 
humbugged  into  the  belief  that  for  his  mere  neu- 
trality in  a  possible  war,  Prussia  would  reward 
him  by  an  equal  complaisance  should  France  wish 
to  annex  Belgium  or  extend  her  frontiers  to  the 
Rhine.  Bismarck  could  afford  to  be  generous 
with  property  to  which  he  had  no  title;  and  had 
Napoleon  insisted,  he  would  gladly  have  promised 
him  any  other  country  on  the  same  terms.  He 
was  now  sure  of  Russia  and  France,  so  that  he 
need  not  protect  himself  on  those  frontiers;  and 


The  Clown  Bismarck  67 

isolated  Austria  was  weakened  still  further  by 
having  to  place  an  army  on  the  Italian  border 
and  suppress  probable  outbreaks  in  the  land  of 
Kossuth. 

Bismarck  was  destined  to  live  more  than  thirty 
years  after  the  triumphs  of  1866,  but  in  all  the 
length  of  his  remarkable  career  never  did  his  genius 
for  bluffing  and  cajoling,  combining,  isolating,  and 
forecasting  burst  forth  more  brilliantly  than  in  the 
campaigns  that  link  themselves  logically  together 
(1864-1866)  and  which  ended  in  the  complete 
rout  of  Austria,  the  humiliation  of  Napoleon  III., 
and  the  restoration  of  Venice  to  Italy. 

Poor  Napoleon  rubbed  his  eyes  when  he  woke 
to  the  state  of  things  as  they  were  in  reality  rather 
than  through  the  smoke  of  Bismarckian  cigars 
lighted  by  the  tapers  of  Biarritz  and  Fontaine- 
bleau.  The  good-natured  clown  of  yesterday  had 
in  a  few  days  remade  the  map  of  Europe,  expelled 
Austria  from  the  German  Federation,  and  flouted 
Napoleon's  claim  to  hold  the  balance  of  power. 
In  vain  did  he  call  upon  Wilhelm's  minister  to 
redeem  some  of  those  rosy  promises  gaily  made  a 
few  months  ago.  Bismarck  had  forgotten  all 
about  them  and  when  in  anger  the  poor  French 
Emperor  talked  of  war,  Bismarck  smiled  as 
though  he  had  been  offered  another  cigar.  Alas! 


68        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

poor  Napoleon — not  enough  that  he  was  even 
then  tormented  by  the  disease  that  was  soon  to 
end  his  life — he  had  to  smart  under  Prussian 
insolence  at  a  time  when  he  was  evacuating 
Mexico  under  pressure  from  the  now  triumphant 
government  of  Washington.  Eugenie  was  indig- 
nant that  Lutherans  had  been  permitted  to  humble 
the  Pope's  most  apostolic  of  allies  and  all  the 
world  wondered  why  France,  that  had  made  a 
nation  of  Italy  at  Solferino,  should  permit  Prussia 
to  reap  the  glories  of  Sadowa.  And  here  again 
we  pick  up  one  of  those  many  threads  that  were 
spun  when  the  French  usurper  sold  himself  to  the 
Papacy.  He  entered  Piedmont  in  1859  as  the 
liberator  of  the  people,  and  for  this  Italy  cheered 
him.  But  when  this  people  declared  Rome  Italian 
and  her  territory  national,  then  Napoleon  sent 
his  troops  to  enslave  that  same  people  and  thus 
the  flag  of  France  became  hated  as  the  symbol  of 
Papal  tyranny  and  national  impotence.  Napo- 
leon had  been  invited  to  join  with  Prussia  and 
Italy  in  1866;  and  had  he  been  half  awake  he 
would  have  leaped  at  the  opportunity  of  reaping 
military  glory  at  a  cost  so  small  and  at  a  time 
when  his  prestige  sadly  needed  assistance.  But 
again  the  bigotry  of  Eugenie  and  his  compact  with 
the  Papacy  made  him  demand  so  many  favours 


Sadowa  69 

for  Pius  the  IX.,  that  the  fortunate  moment 
passed;  and  instead  of  Napoleon  III.  being  the 
Sphinx  of  Europe,  that  r61e  henceforth  fell  to  a 
Hohenzollern  who  spoke  very  rarely  but  moved 
with  astonishing  swiftness,  especially  when  accom- 
panied by  a  million  or  so  of  spiked  helmets. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  War  of  1866  with  Several  Comments  on  Popes 
and  Emperors 

HPHE  contempt  which  Wilhelm  entertained  for 
*  Parliaments  and  similar  playthings  was 
always  felt  and  never  more  freely  expressed  than 
when  in  the  spring  of  1866  Bismarck  assured  him 
that  the  time  had  come  to  apply  the  good  old 
v  Prussian  maxim  about  blood  and  iron.  Moltke 
as  Chief  of  Staff  and  Roon  as  war  minister  assured 
their  monarch  that  his  army  was  more  than  a 
match  for  the  sum  of  all  the  armies  likely  to  oppose 
him;  and  so,  after  a  decent  period  for  prayer  and 
pious  resistance,  Bismarck  prevailed  once  more 
and  the  glorious  campaign  of  1866  rapidly  unfolded 
itself  before  the  eyes  of  an  astonished  world. 

It  was  in  essence  a  German  civil  war — a  power- 
ful Prussia  setting  forth  to  bully  the  weaker  states 
of  a  federation  in  which  she  and  Austria  were 
competing  for  leadership.  Bismarck  took  each 
state  successively  by  the  throat  and  threatened 

70 


Prussianizing  Germany          71 

murder  if  she  refused  to  join  him  against  Austria. 
But  most  of  the  little  states  detested  the  swagger- 
ing manner  of  their  northern  neighbour  and  refused 
to  be  Prussianized.  They  readily  joined  their 
forces  to  those  of  Austria;  for,  the  Hapsburg,  while 
unprogressive  and  lacking  in  military  precision, 
yet  had  been  on  the  whole  a  good-humoured  neigh- 
bour and  had  far  better  manners  than  the  Hohen- 
zollern.  Wilhelm,  in  1866,  had,  therefore,  to  make 
war  not  upon  Austria  alone  but  also  on  Bavaria, 
Wurtemberg,  Baden,  Nassau,  Hessen,  Saxony, 
and  Hanover.  It  was,  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
liberal,  the  war  of  a  well-prepared  barbarian  against 
a  complex  of  civilized  communities  amongst  whom 
war  was  a  secondary  occupation.  The  two  field 
armies  were  in  numbers  not  far  apart — about 
four  hundred  thousand  on  each  side.  But  the 
Prussian  army  was  a  body  of  efficiently  drilled 
and  officered  professionals  to  whom  the  many- 
headed  and  loosely  commanded  troops  of  Southern 
Germany  counted  as  barely  better  than  excellent 
militia.  We  can  hardly  recall  the  names  of  any 
who  commanded  on  the  southern  side,  while  those 
of  Wilhelm,  Roon,  Bismarck,  and  Moltke  grow 
each  day  greater  in  military  history.  Such  a 
combination  was  perhaps  never  before — let  us 
praise  God  that  nothing  comparable  existed  in 


72        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

1914!  South  German  states  were  weak  in  1866, 
just  as  England  and  America  were  weak  in  1914. 
They  had  fatuously  concluded  that  no  civilized 
country  would  invade  them,  least  of  all  one  of 
their  own  language.  They  believed  themselves  in 
safety  behind  the  paper  bulwarks  of  what  some 
pacifistic  folk  called  a  "league  of  nations"  and  they 
quickly  learned  the  lesson  taught  by  all  such  Walls 
of  China,  that  pacifism  is  a  creed  by  which  can 
profit  only  the  crafty  military  autocrat. 

Wilhelm  gave  his  drowsy  neighbours  no  time 
to  think,  much  less  unite  their  scattered  armies. 
Early  in  June  he  picked  a  quarrel  with  Austria; 
on  the  1 5th  of  that  same  month  war  was  formally 
declared;  and  in  little  more  than  a  fortnight 
Saxony  and  Bohemia  were  flooded  and  the  Austrian 
army  routed  in  one  pitched  battle,  known  to  the 
civilized  world  as  Sadowa,  but  to  those  who  of  two 
sounds  clutch  eagerly  at  a  harsh  one,  known  as 
Die  Schlacht  bei  Koeniggraetz.  The  great  feat  had 
been  performed — the  patient  parade-ground  labour 
of  the  past  eight  years  had  been  crowned  with 
success;  all  of  the  South  German  states  felt  the 
fall  of  Austria  and  capitulated  one  after  the  other, 
and  Wilhelm  rode  home  in  triumph  through  the 
Linden  Avenue  of  his  capital  at  the  head  of  an 
army  that  not  merely  gave  him  power  to  meet 


Wilhelm  after  Sadowa  73 

any  foreign  enemy  but,  what  was  to  him  of  greater 
importance,  protected  him  against  his  own  beloved 
people.  Sadowa  rang  through  the  world  like  a 
challenge  from  Berlin.  The  conqueror  of  Magenta 
and  Solferino  looked  with  less  pleasure  on  the 
laurels  he  had  plucked  in  Piedmont,  for  Prussia 
at  Sadowa  not  merely  reduced  Austria  to  secon- 
dary importance  but  earned  the  gratitude  of  Italy 
by  helping  her  to  the  Venetian  provinces. 

Is  it  a  wonder  that  Berlin  went  wild  with  joy 
and  all  Prussia  swaggered  violently!  The  patri- 
otic and  very  unselfish  deputies,  who  had  for  the 
past  four  years  carried  on  a  hard  parliamentary 
fight  for  constitutional  liberty,  were  now  hooted 
down  by  the  mob  who  always  shout  for  a  success- 
ful Caesar.  Parliament  immediately  condoned  all 
the  crimes  of  those  who  returned  with  the  spoils 
of  war.  Wilhelm  and  Bismarck  received  praise 
and  forgiveness,  the  papers  and  politicians  who 
one  month  ago  charged  them  with  breaking  treaties 
and  wrecking  the  temple  of  Liberty  now  swung 
incense  before  them  as  the  Saviours  of  the  Father- 
land, the  authors  of  National  Unity. 

Is  it  ever  profitable  to  speculate  on  events  as 
they  might  have  been?  When  today  Wilhelm  II. 
contemplates  the  wreck  of  an  empire  reared  by 
the  long  labour  of  his  grandfather  is  it  possible 


74        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

that  he  loses  faith  in  mere  force  as  an  instrument 
of  statecraft?  Was  Germany  ripe  for  constitu- 
tional monarchy  in  1866?  Was  she  ripe  for  liberty 
in  1848?  In  those  days  there  was  turbulence  in 
the  forum;  but  out  of  that  political  hurly-burly 
there  emerged  some  popular  and  commanding 
figures,  who,  little  by  little,  were  educating  the 
people  in  self-control  and  constitutional  methods. 
Had  there  been  no  Bismarck  and  no  Moltke  we 
might  have  heard  more  of  parliamentary  develop- 
ment. But  popular  tribunes  under  Wilhelm  were 
either  shot,  jailed,  or  driven  beyond  the  seas.  We 
mention  with  respect  such  names  as  Robert  Blum, 
Virchow,  Lasker,  Bunsen,  Bamberger,  Schurz— 
names  anathema  to  Yunkers  and  sadly  lacking 
in  the  Bolsheviki  carnival  that  now  passes  for 
democratic  government  in  Berlin.  Those  who 
worship  power  only,  have  always  apologized  for 
tyranny  by  asserting  that  the  victims  of  such  rule 
were  not  fit  for  liberty.  Napoleon  I .  and  Napoleon 
III.  each  popularized  the  plausible  dictum  that 
France  was  not  fit  to  govern  herself,  and  little  did 
Wilhelm  think,  in  1870,  when  Napoleonism  sank 
in  mud  and  blood,  that  it  was  from  a  self-governing 
France  that  his  autocratic  grandson  was  to  receive 
a  blow  heavier  than  Sedan — or  Sadowa!  What 
if  Mazzini  had  been  assisted  by  Napoleon  when 


Prussian  Terms  to  Austria      75 

Rome  proclaimed  the  republic  and  Pope  Pius  ran 
away!  How  glorious  would  France  have  been  if 
instead  of  handing  her  children  over  to  Jesuits  for 
education  she  had  inaugurated  national  and  ra- 
tional education  in  1848?  And  how  happened  it 
that  with  all  Napoleon's  concessions  to  the  Vatican 
he  did  not  compel  Pius  IX.  to  come  and  consecrate 
his  marriage  with  Eugenie ! 

Alas  for  France,  there  was  little  of  Carolus 
Quintus  in  the  third  Napoleon  and  even  less  of 
Napoleon  the  Great.  But  Wilhelm  and  Bismarck 
were  there,  two  stubborn  facts  that  never  hap- 
pened before.  They  made  three  wars  in  their 
time  and  they  made  inevitable  the  war  of  Wilhelm 
II.  Had  this  combination  not  existed  Germany 
might  have  moved  more  slowly  to  her  powerful 
position;  but  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  she 
would  have  today  more  friends  and  more  happiness. 

In  1866  Bismarck  showed  an  apparent  gener- 
osity towards  the  conquered  that  gained  him 
enormous  praise  in  the  newspaper  world.  He 
asked  of  Austria  and  her  South  German  allies  very 
little  compared  with  what  he  had  wrested  from 
Denmark  and  was  soon  to  take  from  France.  In- 
deed he  insisted  only  upon  the  obvious  and  mini- 
mum— that  Austria  should  confine  herself  to  the 
Danube  and  let  the  rest  of  the  German  states 


76        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

group  themselves  economically  and  diplomatically 
under  Prussian  leadership — that  was  all!  In 
return  he  offered  his  victims  pecuniary  compensa- 
tion and  trade  privileges  that  were  bound  up  in 
a  Customs  Union  from  which  each  participant 
would  soon  draw  substantial  benefit.  Of  the  four 
kings  who  had  joined  the  Austrian  Emperor, 
Wilhelm  allowed  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  to 
remain  intact  but  he  deposed  the  Hanoverian  and 
confiscated  his  hereditary  possessions.  He  also 
absorbed  much  land  in  that  neighbourhood  which 
made  Prussia  now  a  well-rounded  state — not  yet 
complete,  but  so  near  to  it,  that  Bismarck  could 
arrange  for  the  next  war — which  was  timed  for 
the  moment  when  the  German  military  prepara- 
tions should  be  adequate  and  France  isolated. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

As  to  the  German  Soldier's  Docility  and  Servility — 
Wilhelm  I.  and  Three  Years'  Military  Period 

\A7HEN  Wilhelm  I.  left  Berlin,  in  July  of  1870, 
to  make  war  against  Napoleon,  he  was 
followed  by  the  cheers  and  blessings  of  the  same 
people  who  four  years  before  criticized,  if  they  did 
not  curse  him,  for  a  tyrant  and  perjurer.  The 
battle  of  Sadowa,  and  particularly  the  political 
consequences  which  Bismarck  had  exploited  to 
the  full,  had  stirred  throughout  North  Germany 
new  passions  born  of  popular  confidence  in  the 
statecraft  of  their  chancellor  and  the  military 
genius  of  their  war  department.  Few  people  have 
been  proof  against  the  fascinations  of  a  successful 
soldier;  France  succumbed  for  a  time  to  her  great 
Napoleon  and  even  Napoleon  III.  owed  much  of 
his  domestic  power  to  the  glory  associated  with 
Inkerman  and  Balaklava.  Uncle  Sam  professes 
horror  of  war,  yet  for  over  half  a  century  our  poli- 
ticians have  sought  presidential  candidates  from 

77 


78        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

amongst  those  who  gained  fame  on  the  field  of 
battle,  however  helpless  they  proved  themselves 
to  be  in  the  entanglements  of  party  lines.  It  is 
enough  to  name  McClellan,  Grant,  Fremont,  and 
Hancock — notable  soldiers  who  fell  before  politi- 
cal temptation.  Of  latter  names,  McKinley  and 
Roosevelt,  who  were  primarily  politicians,  exploited 
to  the  full  such  military  record  as  they  had,  or 
believed  that  they  had. 

If  now  nations  of  such  character  as  France  and 
the  United  States  have  yielded  to  this  pardonable 
weakness  for  men  of  warlike  fame,  and  if  even 
Great  Britain  has  shared  our  honourable  failing, 
what  can  we  expect  of  Prussians  who  for  centuries 
have  known  no  law  but  that  of  force  and  who  have 
never  possessed  power  save  as  an  instrument  to 
wield  like  the  hammer  of  Thor  against  the  nearest 
opponent.  Children  in  a  foreign  land  learn  much 
that  escapes  their  elders;  and  while  Prussia  was 
invading  Denmark  I  was  learning  much  by  fre- 
quent single  combats  on  the  Rhine — myself  being 
there  at  school  and  sharing  a  then  inexplicable 
yearning  to  resent  anything  that  looked  German. 
We  youngsters  were  wiser  than  our  years  for  we 
discovered  what  our  elders  had  not  the  means  of 
discovering,  that  the  Prussian  is  distinguished 
from  those  of  the  Great  Race  by  an  abnormal  defi- 


Prussian  Character  79 

ciency  of  what  the  Roman  terms  Virtus  and  the 
modern  recognizes  as  character.  We  could  never 
conceive  fair  play  as  part  of  a  Prussian  schoolboy. 
In  1866  the  Austrian  prisoners  came  streaming 
through  Bonn  on  their  way  to  different  camps; 
there  were  Slovaks  and  Tschecks  and  Poles  and 
Hungarians — many  of  those  who  had  fought  for 
liberty  under  Kossuth  and  who  regarded  Prussia 
only  as  one  more  tyranny  on  the  Russian  plan. 
One  day  I  was  with  a  dozen  of  my  school-fellows 
— American  and  English — and  we  carried  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  to  the  railway  station  where  a  train- 
load  of  prisoners  had  halted.  I  recall  as  yesterday, 
the  glow  of  happiness  that  lighted  up  those  faces 
when  we  consented  to  each  of  them  cutting  a  piece 
from  our  American  flag  and  pinning  it  somewhere 
on  their  tunics.  It  was  all  done  hurriedly,  and 
that  it  was  done  at  all  was  owing  to  our  physical 
insignificance  in  the  eyes  of  the  Prussian  function- 
aries. That  flag  disappeared  in  minute  fragments 
and  an  incredibly  few  seconds,  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  depressing  black  and  white  of  Prussia  there 
went  out  of  that  station,  amidst  thunderous  hur- 
rahs, understood  only  by  us  of  the  initiate,  a  car- 
load of  mysteriously  excited  and  smiling  polyglots 
bedecked  with  red,  white,  and  blue  emblems.  Those 
Austrian  prisoners  represented  a  superior  race — 


8o        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

more  character.  The  Prussian  has  nothing  to 
offer  which  the  man  of  Prague,  of  Budapest,  of 
Warsaw,  of  Vienna  cares  to  copy.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Prussian  eagerly  travels  and  enquires 
and  returns  and  wonders  why  it  is  that  with  such 
a  magnificent  army  and  such  admirable  municipal 
regulations  the  individual  Prussian  remains  today 
just  as  unlovely  and  just  as  much  of  an  erudite 
bore  as  Voltaire  depicts  him  in  Pangloss. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  causes  that  within  one 
decade  made  a  mighty  empire  out  of  a  second-rate 
state  and  sent  forth  into  the  world  a  host  of  bluster- 
ing and  swaggering  Prussians  whose  conversation 
was  loud  and  much  interlarded  with  such  words 
as  Wir  Deutsche.  Those  who  knew  the  Prussian 
from  within  had  no  fear  of  the  result — even  in 
1914 — for  they  knew  that  a  river  cannot  rise  higher 
than  its  source  nor  can  a  nation  achieve  perma- 
nently a  greatness  that  bears  not  some  relation  to 
the  virtus  of  her  citizens.  The  Prussian  being 
devoid  of  individual  character  we  must  look  for 
the  greatness  of  the  German  Empire  elsewhere, 
and  we  find  it  in  the  marvellous  docility,  not  to 
say  servility,  of  Prussianized  Germany.  This 
explains  why  Prussians  of  themselves  have  done 
little  that  history  cares  to  record,  whether  in  sci- 
ence, art,  invention,  or  even  war.  It  explains 


Physical  Courage  81 

better,  however,  the  fabulous  achievements  of 
this  people  when  their  docility  and  thrift  have 
been  exploited  by  a  Wilhelm  and  a  Bismarck,  a 
Moltke  and  a  Roon.  It  has  been  frequently  noted 
that  physical  courage  is  largely  a  matter  of  disci- 
pline and  daily  contact  with  danger.  Chinese 
Gordon  created  an  invincible  army  out  of  material 
which  normally  symbolizes  pacifism.  In  Egypt 
British  officers  have  made  good  fighting  regiments 
out  of  men  who  not  long  before  cringed  at  the 
sight  of  an  official.  Our  own  negroes  have  but 
the  pedigree  of  an  African  slave  market  yet  under 
officers  from  West  Point  they  have  added  to  the 
military  glory  of  America  whilst  opening  a  new 
vista  for  their  race. 

The  French  and  Anglo-Americans  fight  none  the 
less  well  for  knowing  what  they  are  fighting  about; 
nor  do  their  officers  find  it  necessary  to  strike  their 
men  in  the  face  or  call  them  by  offensive  names. 
In  Germany  all  this  is  otherwise,  and  officers  have 
assured  me,  over  and  over  again,  that  the  true 
greatness  of  Prussia  reposed  upon  a  military 
discipline  so  thorough  that  the  soldier  could  not 
possibly  do  other  than  obey  the  word  of  command 
— without  a  murmur — without  even  a  thought. 

Before  Wilhelm  I.  came  to  power  the  Prussian 
recruits  were  drilled  consecutively  for  two  years, 


82        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

which  was  deemed  long  enough  for  practical  pur- 
poses and  which  would  seem  to  you  or  me  exces- 
sive. But  Wilhelm  thought  that  three  years 
would  be  better  still — that  it  would  more  effec- 
tually drill  out  any  latent  sparks  of  individual 
thinking  that  might  have  been  brought  from  home 
to  the  barracks.  It  was  this  little  matter  that 
caused  all  of  liberal  Germany  to  oppose  their 
King  in  Parliament,  and  in  this  matter  the  King 
triumphed  by  throwing  his  sword  into  the  balance. 
And  the  King  was  right  from  one  point  of  view, 
for  he  commanded  an  army  which  had,  in  three 
years  of  drill,  become  so  automatically  brave  that 
they  attacked  with  equal  violence  Danes  in  1864, 
brother  Germans  in  1866,  and  Frenchmen  in  1870. 
Nor  is  there  evidence  that  they  fought  at  Saar- 
brucken  or  Worth  any  better  or  worse  than  they 
did  at  Langensalza  or  at  the  storming  of  Duppel. 
They  were  drilled  to  fight  and  they  were  drilled 
so  long  and  so  brutally  that  fighting  any  enemy 
seemed  preferable  to  the  daily  petty  miseries  inci- 
dent to  the  home  barracks.  Thus  a  race  of  in- 
offensive, thrifty,  and  possibly  molluscous  habits, 
becomes  in  a  short  period  an  organized  terror  and 
the  main  support  of  a  mad  autocracy. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  consider  Prussia's  most 
famous  strategist — Moltke,  the  Dane. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Moltke  the  Dane  and  his  Conception  of  War — Also 
the  Great  General  Staff" 

s'~ 

\  \  riLHELM  I.  could  have  done  nothing  with- 

*  *  out  a  Bismarck;  who  in  his  turn  would 
have  been  helpless  but  for  Moltke  and  Roon. 
It  was  Wilhelm  who  recognized  the  merits  of  these 
three  incomparable  servants;  he  fastened  them 
to  him  by  bonds  that  were  dissolved  only  in  the 
hour  of  death.  All  three  were  of  the  aristocracy, 
all  three  owed  their  advancement  to  courtly  in- 
fluence, all  three  were  creatures  of  favouritism, 
all  three  were  champions  of  Hohenzollern  auto- 
cracy, all  threq  were  successful,  all  three  are  to- 
day venerated  as  patriots. 

Moltke  lives  in  history  as  a  military  strategist 
pure  and  simple;  who  played  battles  as  others 
play  chess.  He  could  not  have  been  the  Moltke 
of  Sadowa  and  Sedan  had  he  not  been  born  at  the 
right  moment  and,  in  the  ripeness  of  his  powers, 
had  at  his  command  resources  that  were  unattain- 

83 


84        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

able  by  a  Caesar  or  Napoleon.  As  Prussia  was 
the  first  great  military  autocracy  of  our  times,  so 
was  she  the  first  to  treat  a  Moltke  as  a  necessary, 
if  not  the  most  important,  feature  of  her  govern- 
ment. Napoleon  and  Caesar  had  strategy  at  then- 
finger  ends;  so  had  they  the  position  of  every 
regiment  or  legion  on  the  day  of  battle;  and  they 
each  knew  the  art  of  stimulating  soldierly  courage 
by  a  timely  phrase  or  dramatic  movement.  All 
this  was  possible  in  battles  where  the  commander 
could  see  from  one  wing  to  the  other  and  where 
the  soldiers  could  feel  that  they  were  observed  by 
a  beloved  chief.  In  the  navy,  matters  were 
roughly  analogous,  the  admiral  was  all  things 
afloat,  for,  every  ship  could  read  his  signals, 
and  a  Nelson  embodied  all  that  a  great  sailor  then 
needed  of  gunnery,  seamanship,  and  naval  strategy. 
Wilhelm  I.  was  the  first  who  recognized  the  influ- 
ence of  modern  resources  upqn  war  and  at  the 
right  moment  divided  his  labours  into  three  parts. 
Roon  had  charge  of  all  details  affecting  the  re- 
cruiting, equipping,  drilling  of  the  army — as  minis- 
ter of  war.  The  King  as  nominal  war  lord  selected 
those  who  took  charge  of  the  different  units  in 
the  field  and  led  them  to  battle ;  but  the  brain  of 
the  whole  machine  was  Moltke,  who  at  his  leisure 
elaborated  the  architectural  drawings  for  the 


Moltke  85 

mighty  war  temple.  It  was  in  times  of  peace  and 
with  a  staff  of  admirably  equipped  experts  that 
the  great  strategist  proved  beyond  a  human  doubt 
that  he  could  destroy  the  French  army  in  a  few 
weeks.  Napoleon  or  Caesar  might  have  accom- 
plished the  same  in  their  day,  for  they  were  men 
of  genius.  But  even  they  suffered  some  sad  checks. 
Moltke  did  not  pretend  to  be  a  genius.  He  had 
the  contempt  of  a  scientifically  trained  man  for 
theatrical  effects  and  soldier  heroes.  To  him  war 
was  a  business  matter  in  which  the  winner  is  he 
who  eliminates  the  most  chances.  He  entered 
the  war  against  France  as  an  engineer  would  un- 
dertake a  monster  bridge  or  tower.  He  had  on  his 
chessboard  an  army,  each  unit  of  which  was  drilled 
mathematically  to  the  same  standard  as  every 
other  one.  He  wanted  no  "crack"  regiments  and 
above  all,  he  wanted  no  "charge  of  the  Light 
Brigade."  He  secured  just  what  he  wanted  and 
what  neither  Napoleon  nor  Caesar  could  have 
secured  in  their  day — an  army  in  which  every 
man  could  march  at  a  standard  rate,  carry  a 
standard  pack,  and  drop  into  the  firing  line  with  a 
standard  amount  of  ammunition  and  muscular 
power.  Moltke  first  applied  to  war  what  our 
great  captains  of  industry  have  found  to  be  a 
prime  condition  of  success  in  manufacture — he 


86        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

worked  for  a  standard — a  gooa  average  standard. 
He  was  not  interested  to  know  that  one  regiment 
had  some  notable  athletes  or  a  squadron  had 
famous  cross-country  riders.  These  might  make 
pictures  for  illustrated  weeklies  and  fill  the  note- 
books of  war  correspondents  who  find  comfort  in 
the  Rough  Riders  of  a  Roosevelt;  but  he  frowned 
on  such  child's  play. 

Moltke  was  sixty-six  years  of  age  when  the 
world  suddenly  discovered  that  the  art  of  war  had 
been  revolutionized  since  Waterloo,  and  that 
Sadowa  was  the  work  of  a  new  school.  And  in- 
deed herein  lies  another  claim  of  Moltke  to  great- 
ness— he  effaced  himself,  but  gave  every  aid  to 
his  pupils  in  the  General  Staff.  When  Bismarck 
laid  down  his  pen  on  the  chancellor's  table  in  the 
Wilhelmstrasse,  there  was  no  one  to  take  it  up; 
for  Bismarck  feared  a  rival  and  did  not  educate 
any  possible  successors.  Moltke  on  the  contrary 
created  a  school ;  and  when  he  died  full  of  honours 
and  years,  he  was  the  happier  for  knowing  that 
whilst  he  was  nothing,  the  General  Staff  was 
everything.  This  word  of  General  Staff  I  use 
with  reluctance  for  we  have  stolen  it  from  Berlin 
and  made  it  a  burlesque  of  what  Moltke  intended. 
However  there  is  no  other  word — and  we  must 
speak  of  the  General  Staff  as  we  speak  of  Chris- 


General  Staff  87 

tianity — with  mental  reservation  regarding  the 
much  of  political  mischief  that  may  exist  behind 
the  curtains  of  each  great  and  respectable  institu- 
tion. 

The  basis  of  Moltke  *s  creation  is  knowledge; 
and  the  knowledge  Moltke  sought  first  was  geo- 
graphic. Consequently  when  his  King  had  set 
him  the  task  of  invading  an  hypothetical  neigh- 
bour it  was  the  first  duty  of  the  General  Staff  to 
purchase,  purloin,  or  secretly  make,  detailed  maps 
of  the  territory  in  question.  In  the  case  of  France 
these  could  be  purchased  or  purloined  by  means  of 
bribery  save  in  the  neighbourhood  of  fortresses. 
Napoleon  had  to  make  his  own  maps  for  the  larger 
part  of  Europe  and  Csesar  had  none  in  our  sense. 
In  our  Civil  War  topography  bore  no  closer  rela- 
tion to  physical  geography  than  the  charts  of 
Ptolemy  to  those  of  the  British  Admiralty.  When 
Moltke  was  born  (1800)  there  was  no  scientific 
map  of  Prussia,  but  before  the  Franco-Prussian 
War  he  had  made  his  General  Staff  maps  a  model 
for  the  rest  of  the  world.  Moltke,  like  Roon,  was 
primarily  a  map  maker  and  specifically  a  military 
geographer.  He  published  the  first  correct  map 
of  the  Dardanelles  country  during  his  life  in  Tur- 
key (1835-1839),  and  later  gave  to  the  world  her 
first  topographical  map  of  the  then  country  about 


88        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Rome  (1845).  Had  Moltke  and  Roon  sought 
work  in  London,  instead  of  Berlin,  the  year  1870 
might  have  discovered  them  at  the  head  of  a  flour- 
ishing atlas,  each  an  F.R.G.S.  and  possibly  geo- 
graphers to  the  Queen  under  the  firm  name  of  Roon, 
Moltke  &  Co.  Limited.  But  Moltke  was  not 
merely  the  right  man;  his  King  put  him  in  the 
right  place  and  both  happened  in  the  right  time. 
The  Prussia  of  Moltke 's  youth  had  few  if  any 
good  roads,  and  Wilhelm  I.  seconded  his  General 
Staff  in  this  important  military  matter.  It  is 
not  always  that  an  autocrat  unconsciously  serves 
the  higher  interest  of  his  people  by  carrying  out 
plans  formed  primarily  for  war;  but  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  may  be  said  that 
the  economic  growth  of  Prussia  was  owing  largely, 
if  not  wholly,  to  the  labours  of  a  King  whose  only 
standard  of  value  was  military  efficiency.  The 
correct  and  very  detailed  maps  of  the  General 
Staff  were  not  merely  necessary  for  the  instruction 
of  officers  at  the  autumn  manoeuvres  but  they 
were  an  immense  stimulus  to  commerce  and  travel. 
Moltke  strategy  eliminated  chance  and  therefore 
broad  hard  highways  had  to  communicate  from 
all  centres  to  the  frontier;  otherwise  he  could  not 
calculate  to  the  hour  when  a  battery  of  artillery 
starting  from  Spandau  would  reach  Coblenz. 


Good  Roads  89 

Grant  and  Sherman  were  sometimes  glad  if  their 
guns  did  not  disappear  in  the  Virginia  quagmires, 
let  alone  move  on  good  macadamized  roads. 
Good  roads  helped  the  farmer  no  less  than  the 
soldier;  and  when  the  telegraph  and  railways  made 
their  appearance  these  were  promptly  added  to 
the  Prussian  war  equipment;  and,  by  their  aid, 
Moltke  was  able  to  make  military  combinations 
undreamed  of  by  any  of  his  predecessors  and  un- 
surpassed until  this  Great  War.  Moltke  did  not 
invent  anything,  but  at  a  moment  when  France 
and  England  and  Austria  were  blind  to  the  powers 
of  science  in  warfare,  Moltke  harnessed  these  in 
masterly  manner  to  the  chariot  of  Mars  and  easily 
placed  his  country  in  the  lead  of  all  the  world, 
for  at  least  a  whole  generation. 

The  Prussian  railways  have  been  run  as  a  part 
of  the  army.  They  boast  little  of  extra  fast  limited 
Chicago  flyers;  they  move  with  remarkable  regu- 
larity and  a  monotonous  absence  of  those  crashes 
that  cost  America  more  lives  than  many  a  small 
war.  The  Prussian  railway  enabled  Moltke  to 
treat  with  almost  mathematical  accuracy  an  ele- 
ment in  warfare  which  nearly  every  other  nation 
misunderstood  or  ignored.  I  mean  MOBILIZATION. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Mobilization — Moltke    and    Prussian    Preparedness 
in  1870 

/\ /I  OBILIZATION  means  no  more  to  our  law- 
*  *  makers  than  trans-substantiation  to  a  Zulu. 
But  to  our  nimble-witted  Hebrews  and  contractors 
it  means  opportunity  to  press  money  from  a  dis- 
tressed government — an  orgy  of  extravagance, 
waste,  and  jobbery.  My  own  life  covers  a  period 
which  includes  the  great  Civil  War,  when  we  had 
to  improvise  an  army  of  a  million  men  on  one  side 
alone  and  when  all  suffered  heavily  save  the  so- 
called  "bounty  jumpers"  who  fattened  on  the 
fruits  of  frequent  desertion.  In  the  Spanish  War 
we  mobilized  250,000  men,  and  killed  of  them  a 
larger  proportion  through  filth,  diseases,  and  incom- 
petent officers  than  were  in  sight  of  the  Spanish 
lines.  The  Great  War  found  us  equally  un- 
prepared; and  the  Washington  Government,  so 
far  from  educating  public  opinion  and  protesting 
against  the  Prussian  atrocities,  deprecated  all 

90 


Preparedness  91 

military  preparedness  and  even  blacklisted  such 
of  our  citizens  as  gave  timely  warning  of  impending 
calamity.  Our  President  preached  pacifism  even 
after  the  Lusitania  massacre,  and  some  of  his 
conspicuous  friends  in  office  spoke  and  acted  in 
a  manner  that  could  give  pleasure  only  in  Berlin. 
The  then  Secretary  of  State  (Bryan),  who  had 
competed  for  the  Presidency  many  times,  assured 
our  ignorant  masses  over  and  over  again  that  war 
could  never  touch  these  shores  and  that  in  case 
of  danger  nothing  more  was  needed  than  a  Presi- 
dential proclamation  and,  presto!  an  army  of  a 
million  well-armed  soldiers  would  spring  from  the 
ground  and  chase  the  Kaiser's  army  into  the  sea. 

Our  grandchildren  will  marvel  that  a  scholar  of 
the  Wilson  calibre  could  tolerate  as  principal 
member  of  his  cabinet  one  whose  life  for  a  full 
generation  had  been  that  of  a  shallow  talker, 
emitting  political  theories  with  the  fluency  and 
earnestness  of  one  whom  we  look  for  at  the  county 
fair  selling  some  patent  pain-killer,  and  each 
grows  rich  in  the  process. 

We  did  finally  conclude  to  mobilize  (1917),  but 
instead  of  an  army  stamped  from  the  ground  in  a 
day  or  two  on  the  Bryan  plan,  General  Pershing 
found  that  one  year  was  barely  sufficient,  and  even 
then  we  had  to  borrow  from  France  artillery  and 


92        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

air  craft  whilst  England  had  to  provide  the  ships 
on  which  our  gallant  army  finally  reached  Europe 
in  safety.  West  Pointers  know  that  our  army  in 
France  was  not  a  real  or  complete  army;  that  our 
quota  of  capable  officers  was  pitifully  small  and 
that  only  the  most  extraordinary  intelligence  and 
courage  could  accomplish  in  one  year  what  in 
Europe  had  been  achieved  by  three  years  of  fight- 
ing. We  voted  six  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
for  aeroplanes  that  never  flew;  we  seized  upon  all 
the  machinery  of  industry  and  commerce  through- 
out the  country  from  railways  and  coal  mines  to 
motor  cars  and  candy  stores.  The  cost  of  living 
more  than  doubled,  and  labour  conditions  became 
paradoxical — some  unskilled  earning  ten  dollars 
per  day  in  shipyards  or  munition  plants,  others 
reduced  to  want  by  the  difficulty  of  securing  the 
material  or  the  help  needed  in  their  little  industry. 
Let  us  add  up  the  millions  upon  millions  taken 
from  the  pockets  of  our  people  through  hastily 
made  tax  laws ;  let  us  note  that  our  medical  officers 
inject  poison  into  our  recruits  by  way  of  prevent- 
ing possible  disease.  We  have  so  far  squirted  but 
three  kinds  of  serums  into  them,  but  there  are 
many  dozens  on  the  market  and  fanaticism  amongst 
physicians  falls  little  short  of  that  generated  by 
too  much  theology.  In  1918,  through  the  months 


Salvation  by  Serum  93 

of  January,  February,  and  March  the  deaths  in 
the  American  army  in  France  from  pneumonia 
alone  averaged  nearly  four  times  those  of  the  same 
period  amongst  the  British  troops,  although  in 
general  we  had  the  pick  of  our  men  overseas  and 
our  papers  kept  up  a  persistent  glorification  of 
our  matchless  medical  corps  and  Red  Cross  machi- 
nery. The  time  would  seem  to  have  arrived  when 
the  science  of  common  sense  should  be  applied 
in  preference  to  one  which  preaches  salvation  by 
serums. 

In  the  summer  of  1870,  Moltke  received  word 
that  his  King  had  declared  war,  against  France. 
"Very  well — open  draw  X  Y  Z  and  you  will  find 
the  French  frontier — the  orders  are  all  made  out- 
see  that  they  are  delivered.  Good  day!"  and 
the  venerable  head  of  the  General  Staff  turned 
over  and  finished  his  nap. 

The  words  used  on  this  memorable  occasion 
are  immaterial,  but  the  fact  that  Prussia  was 
ready  for  this  or  any  other  war.  is  a  fact  of  impor- 
tance, for  it  meant  that  a  million  Germans  were 
swarming  over  the  Rhine  and  into  Alsace-Lorraine 
before  Napoleon  III.  had  half  completed  his  plans 
for  holding  even  his  frontier  fortresses. 

Even  strangers  could  note  on  all  sides  the 
increase  in  military  work,  the  arrival  of  reserve 


94        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

troops,  serving  out  of  equipment,  trains  moving 
at  half  hour  intervals  crowded  with  men,  horses, 
artillery.  Soon  the  trains  came  steaming  back 
loaded  with  French  prisoners,  Turcos  from  Alge- 
ria, wounded  of  both  armies.  On  paper  all  this 
sounds  like  an  upheaval,  but  in  fact  life  in  the 
Germany  of  1870-71,  as  I  saw  it  at  many  points 
other  than  Berlin,  ran  along  normally  enough, 
so  far  as  the  surface  of  things  was  concerned.  The 
mobilization,  that  in  America  and  England  shook 
the  commercial  fabric  to  its  foundations,  was 
barely  felt  on  the  Elbe  or  the  Rhine.  The  govern- 
ment had  looked  ahead  and  provided  in  time  of 
peace  for  the  strain  that  would  come  with  war. 
Every  cart  and  every  horse  is  numbered  from  year 
to  year;  and  hard  cash  is  also  stored  up  against 
the  time  that  the  state  may  wish  to  purchase  much 
and  to  make  no  noise  about  it.  The  moment 
war  is  declared  there  flows  a  stream  of  coin  from 
each  military  headquarters  directly  to  the  pockets 
of  thousands  of  peasants  who  know  just  what  is 
expected  of  them  for  they  have  been  drilled  in 
time.  Every  farm  road  now  groans  with  the  traffic 
of  heavy  wagons  loaded  with  produce — all  num- 
bered and  all  headed  towards  the  front  with 
minute  instructions.  The  railways  are  each  year 
trained  in  troop  transport,  the  stations  are  all 


Efficiency  and  Mobilization      95 

under  military  control,  and  thus  in  the  time  which 
we  would  be  wasting  by  covering  our  fences  with 
liberty  posters  and  holding  meetings  to  encourage 
recruitment,  a  German  army  is  raised,  equipped, 
and  deposited  on  the  soil  of  the  enemy. 

In  speaking  of  Moltke  as  one  of  the  greatest  of 
soldiers  it  seems  paradoxical  to  say  that  he  was 
never  nimself  in  command  of  men.  One  might 
almost  say  that  he  who  won  the  greatest  battles 
of  his  time  was  never  on  one  of  his  own  battle- 
fields, save  when  all  was  over.  He  won  his  victo- 
ries by  teaching  others  where  and  when  to  strike. 
His  battlefield  was  the  war  map ;  his  headquarters 
was  a  table  to  which  ran  telegraph  wires  from 
every  corps;  his  power  lay  in  the  knowledge  that 
each  regiment  was  under  perfect  discipline  and 
that  when  an  attack  was  timed  for  a  certain  hour 
it  would  mean  on  the  stroke  of  that  hour  and  not 
one  minute  sooner  or  later.  The  French  had  then 
as  ever,  an  army  of  brave  soldiers  and  gallant 
officers  in  the  lower  grades,  but  they  were  as  child- 
ren in  the  great  game  of  war.  They  had  appar- 
ently learned  nothing  since  the  Crimea,  and  more 
particularly  had  declined  to  note  what  the  school 
of  Moltke  had  done  in  Germany. 

One  day  (1892)  an  aide-de-camp  of  Wilhelm  II. 
was  boasting  to  me  that  Germans  could  afford  to 


96        Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

be  generous  in  regard  to  the  many  foreign  officers 
who  attended  their  Imperial  manoeuvres  in  mufti. 
His  reason  was  that  the  one  secret  of  German 
success  needed  no  lock  and  key,  for  it  was  their 
inimitable  machinery  of  mobilization. 

Moltke  was  merely  a  man  of  practical  common 
sense  who  recognized  war  as  a  periodically  recur- 
ring disease  that  should  be  met  with  all  the  re- 
sources available.  He  regarded  a  pacifist  as  the 
product  of  unhealthy  social  conditions — something 
that  should  be  quarantined.  Leagues  of  nations 
and  arbitration  societies  and  organizations  to 
enforce  peace  were  all  well  enough  outside  of 
Germany,  for  they  weakened  his  enemies. 

As  a  man  of  science  he  laboured  to  make  it  as 
infrequent  and  as  painless  as  possible.  To  him 
a  battle  should  be  bloodless — the  enemy  should 
be  surrounded  and  made  prisoners,  not  corpses. 
He  would  thus  have  surrounded  Metz  and  Sedan 
in  1870  and  then  have  politely  invited  their  respect- 
ive commanders  to  an  inspection  of  the  German 
lines  and  surrender. 

Moltke  applied  to  modern  warfare  the  methods 
which  Napoleon  would  have  applied  had  he  lived. 
He  studied  Napoleon  and  never  went  beyond  that 
general's  classic  maxim  that  all  of  war  consists 
in  having  at  a  certain  point  at  a  certain  moment 


What  is  War  ?  97 

a  certain  number  of  men.  Moltke  achieved  this 
with  such  scientific  simplicity  that  we  today  look 
back  and  marvel  that  the  rest  of  the  world  could 
not  have  developed  equal  simplicity. 

It  was  all  like  the  egg  of  Columbus!  and  forget 
not  that  Columbus  was  not  a  product  of  Spain, 
nor  was  Moltke  a  Prussian. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Wilhelm  Yearns  for  War  in  1859 — More  of   Moltke 
and  Roon — Also  Steuben  and  Kalb 

PRUSSIA  has  been  ever  famous  for  the  dull- 
ness of  its  court  life;  the  coarseness  of  its 
aristocracy  and  the  absence  of  genius,  inventive- 
ness, or  even  originality  amongst  her  people. 
Military  rule  being  easily  understood  and  most 
directly  personal,  not  to  say  elemental,  appeals 
to  the  Prussian  peasant.  People  who  are  happy 
under  Prussian  rule  make  excellent  subordinates 
but  dangerous  leaders.  They  may  be  compared 
to  the  millions  of  Bengalee  Baboos  of  India  who 
pass  easily  the  literary  examinations  of  English 
colleges ;  who  can  write  letters  glibly ;  frame  plaus- 
ible excuses  interminably,  and  otherwise  act  the 
part  of  routine  office  clerks.  But  Baboos  were 
born  without  backbones  as  Prussians  were  born 
without  the  higher  qualities  that  make  a  straight 
sportsman. 

Moltke  was  a  Dane  and  Roon  of  French  extrac- 
98 


Great  Prussians  99 

tion.  Indeed  nearly  every  name  associated  with 
the  resurrection  of  Prussia  after  the  collapse  of 
Jena  is  that  of  a  non-Prussian.  We  have  but 
to  recall  Scharnhorst,  the  author  of  universal 
service  in  the  army;  Blucher;  and  Gneisenau,  his 
chief  of  staff;  Ernst  Moritz  Arndt  and  the  grand 
old  Freiherr  von  Stein.  Not  one  of  these  was  a 
Prussian  and  without  them  we  cannot  conceive 
of  a  Hohenzollern  participating  in  the  battle  of 
Leipsig  (1813),  much  less  being  recognized  at  the 
Congress  of  Vienna  (1814).  These  men  took  charge 
of  Prussia  when  all  her  territories  combined  barely 
exceeded  the  population  of  New  York  or  London; 
when  her  treasury  was  empty  and  her  throne  on 
a  par  with  that  of  latter-day  Greece,  Bulgaria,  or 
Montenegro.  Reverse  the  picture  and  ask  what 
Prussia  has  contributed  to  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
her  own  chosen  province  of  military  efficiency. 
We  of  America  have  good  humouredly  granted 
pedestals  in  order  that  German  singing  and  turn 
societies  might  thereon  rear  monuments  to  alleged 
military  heroes  who  are  credited  with  having 
sacrificed  home,  fortune,  and  a  glorious  career  for 
the  sake  of  shedding  their  blood  in  the  cause  of 
American  liberty.  We  know  of  only  one  man 
who  answers  to  this  description — Lafayette,  of 
France.  If  there  is  another  it  is  Kosciusko,  the 


ioo      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Pole.  Of  Prussians  I  know  none,  though  dozens 
of  German  names  have  figured  on  our  military 
annals  through  influences  more  political  than 
historical.  Serious  officers  about  the  late  Emperor 
have  never  wearied  of  assuring  me  that  our  North- 
ern States  triumphed  over  those  of  the  South 
(1865)  merely  because  there  were  so  many  Ger- 
mans in  the  Union  army.  They  did  not  mean  to 
be  offensive;  nor  could  I  more  than  smile  grate- 
fully unless  I  had  intended  to  insult  their  under- 
standing. It  never  does  to  argue  with  a  Prussian. 
He  grows  angry  and  becomes  even  more  fixed  in 
his  opinion.  Conversation  can  continue  only  on 
condition  that  one  party  declaim  and  the  other 
applaud.  Germans  declaim  loudly  on  their  heroes 
in  America — their  Siegels  and  Heintzelmans  of  the 
Civil  War;  their  De  Kalbs  and  Steubens  of  the 
Revolution.  But  real  soldiers  of  the  Grant  and 
Sherman  school  dreaded  nothing  so  much  as  going 
under  fire  in  company  with  German  regiments 
who  talked  more  noisily  than  they  fought. 

Steuben  has  monuments  rivalling  those  of  Frank- 
lin, Hamilton,  or  even  Washington;  yet  he  ob- 
tained his  fame  and  pay  in  our  service  by  pretend- 
ing to  a  military  rank  which  he  had  never  held 
at  home.  The  German  vote  keeps  his  memory  a 
patriotic  myth  but  history  knows  him  only  as  an 


Great  Germans  in  America 


average  Prussian  drill  master  who  came  to  America 
for  the  betterment  of  his  purse  and  military  rank. 
Of  De  Kalb  we  know  just  about  as  much.  His  real 
name  was  Kalb  (German  for  calf)  and  the  noble 
prefix  De  or  Von  he  pinned  on  later  by  way  of  orna- 
ment. He  was  a  Bavarian  peasant  who  sought  his 
fortunes  as  a  restaurant  waiter  in  France,  enlisted 
against  his  own  people  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  and 
finally  became  major-general  by  act  of  a  credulous 
Congress  in  our  War  of  Independence.  Americans 
have  so  long  submitted  to  a  Teutonic  ascendancy 
founded  largely  upon  legendary  achievement  not 
to  say  fraud,  that  it  would  seem  now  a  suitable 
moment  for  a  revision  of  our  school  histories  and 
a  readjustment  of  national  heroes.  Prussian 
propaganda  may  find  it  profitable  to  plant  Berlin 
thick  with  statues  of  Hohenzollern  rulers  and 
generals,  for  these  monuments  appeal  to  a  public 
trained  by  centuries  of  military  drill  to  respect 
only  those  who  wear  the  dress  of  a  soldier;  but 
this  country  has  the  blood  and  traditions  of  a 
liberty-loving  England  and  whilst  we  honour  a 
Washington  and  Cromwell  we  pay  equal  homage 
to  a  Franklin  or  a  Bacon,  a  Shakespeare  or  a 
Milton. 

That    Wilhelm    I.    should   have    discovered   a 
Moltke  and  Roon  and  bound  them  to  him  for 


•JQ2      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

.life  is?  noteworthy  when  we  reflect  that  the  King's 
choice  was  limited  to  the  high  aristocracy.  There 
have  been  exceptions,  but  so  rare  as  to  make  the 
Prussian  rule  remarkable.  Fortunately  for  the 
German  army,  however,  aristocracy  needs  bread 
no  less  than  quarterings,  and  genius  like  that  of 
Moltke  and  Roon  must  find  a  patron  or  starve. 

In  1858  Wilhelm  displaced  his  lunatic  brother; 
became  de  facto  King  and  immediately  started 
Moltke  and  Roon  at  their  respective  posts  with 
very  definite  purposes  in  view — first  of  all  to  make 
a  second  revolution  impossible. 

In  the  spring  of  1858  there  was  perhaps  no 
more  melancholy  prince  in  Germany  than  Wilhelm. 
He  had  been  already  fifty  years  a  soldier  yet  since 
the  fall  of  Napoleon  he  had  watched  with  ever 
increasing  irritation  a  growing  tendency  towards 
peace  amongst  the  nations  of  Europe.  He  de- 
tested peace  on  principle  as  a  period  when  military 
efficiency  relaxes;  and,  when  the  Crimean  War 
appeared,  he  loudly  complained  to  his  circle  of 
friends  that  here  was  a  splendid  opening  by  which 
the  Prussian  army  should  profit.  He  was  sixty- 
one  years  old  and  mourning  that  he  would  soon 
die  without  ever  having  been  permitted  to  start 
a  first  class  war  or  even  to  have  carried  through 
his  schemes  for  a  reform  of  the  army.  Whether 


Irritation  of  Wilhelm  103 

he  contemplated  suicide  I  know  not,  but  his 
lamentations  recall  the  equally  ludicrous  ones  of 
Voltaire  who  also  signed  himself  moribund  at  the 
opening  of  a  new  era  destined  to  cover  several 
decades  of  unprecedented  activity  and  good  health. 

Wilhelm  was  born  grave  and  dignified;  his 
youth  was  spent  under  a  cloud  of  military  mis- 
fortunes and  a  dyspeptic  father;  he  was  compelled 
to  abandon  the  only  woman  he  ever  loved  and  to 
grow  venerable  under  an  elder  brother  who  sat 
on  the  Prussian  throne  as  though  it  were  the  stall 
in  a  cathedral,  and  who  knew  more  of  the  holy 
places  in  Palestine  than  the  concentration  camps 
of  his  army.  The  two  royal  brothers  had  little 
in  common.  Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.  was  voluble, 
vague,  and  full  of  half  promises.  Wilhelm  was 
silent,  direct,  soldierly.  The  one  saw  the  world 
through  stained  glass  windows  and  yearned  to  be 
ranked  with  the  Emperor  Constantine.  Wilhelm 
saw  only  what  could  be  reached  on  the  field  of 
war  by  means  of  the  naked  eye  and  a  long-range 
gun. 

But  in  the  moment  of  Wilhelm's  deepest  despond- 
ency his  mediaeval  senior  was  removed;  joy  re- 
turned to  his  bosom  and  youth  was  born  again. 

War  had  in  the  past  been  his  only  interest. 
Now  as  King-Regent  he  would  translate  into  deeds 


104      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

the  promises  of  his  heart.  The  year  1859  seemed 
his  and  he  approached  Austria  with  a  view  to 
co-operating  against  France.  But  he  placed  condi- 
tions which  Franz  Josef  would  not  accept  and  when 
finally  matters  did  adjust  themselves  diplomati- 
cally so  that  Wilhelm  engaged  to  mobilize  his 
whole  army  against  France,  the  moment  had 
passed — Napoleon  III.  and  Franz  Josef  had  signed 
the  Peace  of  Villa  Franca  (nth  July,  1859). 

For  those  who  see  the  hand  of  Providence  or 
the  influence  of  heavenly  bodies  in  human  affairs, 
this  year,  1859,  is  interesting;  for  while  Wilhelm 
had  then  his  Moltke  and  Roon,  there  was  no 
Bismarck;  and  Wilhelm  was  no  diplomat.  Had 
Prussia  engaged  in  that  war  the  result  would 
have  been  to  benefit  her  Austrian  rival,  whereas 
a  Bismarck  would  have  waited  patiently  for  a 
better  occasion.  However  the  mobilization  was 
of  value  in  laying  bare  many  grave  defects  and 
emphasizing  the  importance  of  making  military 
efficiency  the  guiding  policy  of  his  reign.  The 
matter  had  become  the  more  important  from  the 
fact  that  Austria  loudly  laid  the  cause  of  her  cala- 
mities to  Prussian  treachery;  and  this  cry  was 
echoed  throughout  the  South  German  states  where 
such  a  charge  was  welcomed  as  probable  even 
though  not  strictly  true.  A  Wurtemberg  military 


South  Germany  105 

plenipotentiary  (Suckow)  reported  Wilhelm  as  be- 
ing very  indignant  over  the  rumours  current  at 
this  time  and  as  having  addressed  a  council  of 
South  German  officers  in  these  words: 

"Go  home,  Gentlemen,  and  when  you  meet 
any  one  accusing  me  of  such  things,  I  beg  you 
will  slap  him  in  the  face — in  my  name!" 

How  many  of  those  present  availed  themselves 
of  this  pleasing  power  of  attorney  history  does 
not  record;  but  the  emotions  that  agitated  the 
usually  dignified  and  correct  Prince-Regent  are 
measured  by  the  violence  of  his  language  on  this 
occasion.  But  whilst  the  War  of  1859  was  de- 
stined to  pass  him  by,  he  had  made  war  inevitable 
between  Prussia  and  Austria — had  also  stirred 
the  suspicions  of  France — and  all  this  when  his 
army  was  at  its  worst;  when  Moltke  and  Roon 
were  still  at  the  beginning  of  their  great  task  and 
Bismarck  nowhere  in  sight. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

Preparing  the  War  of  1870 — Bismarck  and  Napoleon 
— Augusta  Victoria  and  the  Empress  Frederick 

^\  \  71LHELM  was  seventy- three  years  old  in 
1870,  Moltke  was  seventy,  Roon  sixty- 
seven,  and  Bismarck  was  a  mere  youngster  of 
fifty-five.  This  was  the  quartette  that  ruled 
Germany  with  secrecy  and  force,  that  moulded 
the  army  no  less  than  public  opinion,  and  that 
prepared  the  arena  for  a  fight  that  was  to  upset 
Europe  as  had  no  previous  one  since  Jena.  The 
average  age  of  this  great  quartette  was  more  than 
sixty-six  years  but  each  thirsted  for  the  war  with 
the  keenness  of  sixteen  years  and  each  con- 
cealed this  longing  with  the  craft  that  comes 
of  practice. 

Bismarck  was  assured  by  both  Moltke  and  Roon 
that  Germany  could  bring  to  the  firing  line  not 
merely  two  men  to  every  one  of  Napoleon,  but 
men  better  drilled  and  equipment  altogether 
superior.  War  seemed  to  Prussia  a  political 

1 06 


North  and  South  Germans      107 

necessity  because  Bavaria  and  the  rest  of  South 
Germany  were  showing  renewed  signs  of  restless- 
ness under  Hohenzollern  pretensions.  Those  famil- 
iar with  German  ethnology  need  not  be  told  that 
there  is  more  difference  of  blood  between  peasants 
of  Bavaria  and  those  of  the  Baltic  than  between 
Swedes  and  Spaniards.  They  have  a  common 
language,  but  only  amongst  those  of  higher  educa- 
tion. The  average  farm  labourer  of  Mecklenburg 
could  no  more  follow  a  folks  theatre  performance 
on  the  Danube  than  could  a  French  Canadian 
trapper  understand  an  address  at  the  Sorbonne. 
Furthermore  Bavaria  was  very  Catholic  and 
Prussia  very  Lutheran.  Time  has  done  much  to 
modify  these  divergences.  Bavaria  has  become 
more  liberal  in  matters  of  theology,  and  Wilhelm 
II.  became  less  Lutheran,  not  to  say  more 
Papist.  Increased  facilities  of  travel  have 
helped  the  language  question,  and  commercial 
reciprocity  in  a  well-framed  customs  union  has 
enriched  a  large  number  of  merchants  and 
manufacturers  who  frequently  vote  for  their 
pockets. 

But  however  much  the  matter  of  language  and 
theology  may  in  the  future  favour  Prussian  domi- 
nation, there  will  remain  ever  the  cleavage  made 
by  difference  in  blood — a  cleavage  that  was  there 


io8      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

in  the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  can  be 
altered  only  by  extirpation  root  and  branch;  and 
sowing  on  the  vacated  soil  the  dragon  teeth  of  a 
Brandenburg  Cadmus. 

The  Russian  Czar  not  only  was  friendly  to 
Wilhelm  I.  but  stood  ready  to  check  any  hostile 
movement  that  Austria  might  attempt.  All  now 
depended  on  France;  for  it  was  necessary  that 
Bismarck  should  run  out  into  the  highways  of  the 
world  and  make  everyone  believe  that  he  was  the 
soul  of  peace  but  that  he  had  been  compelled  to 
take  up  arms,  not  merely  for  the  defence  of  Prus- 
sia, but  much  more  for  the  honour  of  his  dear 
allies  in  South  Germany.  And  so  he  kept  the 
big  war  bell  booming  in  the  Berlin  temple;  kept 
the  papers  full  of  alleged  news  from  Paris  calcu- 
lated to  give  the  impression  that  Napoleon  meant 
to  march  against  the  Rhine.  To  the  Reichstag 
he  unfolded  his  honest  heart,  his  hope  that  all 
good  Germans  would  close  up  their  ranks  under 
Prussian  leadership  in  this  hour  of  peril.  Mean- 
time towards  the  helpless  and  suffering  Napoleon 
he  showed  through  diplomatic  channels  that  he 
felt  that  kind  of  contempt  which  one  trickster 
feels  for  the  pal  whom  he  has  outwitted. 

Bismarck  demanded  war — the  sooner  the  better; 
in  this  case  he  made  the  Spanish  throne  a  pretext. 


Bismarck  a  Good  Hater       109 

Had  a  Hohenzollern  Prince  not  been  selected  for 
this  vacant  post,  another  pretext  would  have 
served  equally  well.  The  ostensible  reasons  for 
a  needless  war  I  am  glad  to  leave  to  others,  for 
they  have  little  to  do  with  the  march  of  events.  - 
The  causes  of  the  1870  war  are  to  me  of  no  more 
interest  than  those  adduced  by  Wilhelm  II.  for 
his  irruption  into  Belgium — the  important  thing 
for  us  to  know  is  that  in  1870  the  King  and  his 
Chancellor  demanded  war  as  a  prime  political 
necessity  and  that  its  success  depended  largely 
upon  the  South  German  states  who  were  made  to 
believe  that  they  were  in  peril  and  that  under 
Hohenzollern  leadership  they  could  alone  find 
security. 

Bismarck  was  a  good  hater — and  amongst  those 
whom  he  singled  out  for  the  objects  of  his  thinly 
veiled  aversion  were  the  respective  wives  of  both 
Wilhelm  I.  and  his  son  the  then  Crown  Prince, 
later  Emperor  Frederick.  Each  of  these  women 
represented  schools  of  thought  and  breeding  for- 
eign to  the  Pomeranian  squire.  Each  lived  in  a 
world  of  ideas  and  ideals;  they  were  interested  in 
the  education  of  women;  in  training  schools  for 
nurses;  they  cultivated  the  conversation  of  trav- 
ellers, men  of  science,  artists,  and  notably  of  emi- 
nent foreigners  sojourning  in  the  capital.  This 


i  io      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

subject  is  delicate  to  handle — a  woman's  hand 
should  here  be  substituted  and  I  refer  with  much 
relief  to  Lady  Russell's  incomparable  light  on  the 
quality  of  Prussian  home  life  in  court  circles  no 
less  than  less  important  ones  as  illustrated  in  the 
pages  of  The  Benefactress,  The  Solitary  Summer, 
The  Caravaners.  She  has  reflected  the  living 
truth  but  for  the  sake  of  a  superstitious  public 
has  given  to  her  books  the  euphemistic  label  of 
"Fiction." 

Augusta  Victoria  was  not  Prussian,  far  from  it. 
Her  marriage  with  Wilhelm  I.  was  a  matter  of 
statecraft  and  Berlin  with  its  military  methods 
and  intellectual  materialism  sickened  her,  after 
the  literary  and  artistic  experiences  in  her  home 
town,  Weimar.  Her  grandfather  was  the  prince 
who  had  made  this  little  capital  a  centre  for  the 
best  minds  of  Germany.  Aside  from  Schiller 
and  Goethe,  Weimar  in  the  opening  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  to  Northern  Europe  what 
Boston  was  to  North  America  in  the  days  of 
Prescott,  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  and  Longfellow. 
The  world  of  letters  made  pilgrimages  to  this 
little  Thuringian  court  and  lingered  gladly  in  its 
pleasing  neighbourhood  when  Berlin  offered  no 
attraction  save  to  a  soldier  or  commercial  traveller. 
Augusta  Victoria  penetrated  the  hypocritical  dis- 


Empress  Frederick  in 

guise  of  Bismarck  and  shrank  from  the  brutal 
methods  which  he  had  not  the  delicacy  to 
disguise. 

Her  daughter-in-law  shared  these  views;  and 
as  a  child  of  Queen  Victoria  she  took  far  less  pains 
to  conceal  them  than  her  more  Germanically 
trained  mother-in-law.  These  two  ladies  had  for 
the  great  Chancellor  that  species  of  aversion 
which  the  high-bred  rarely  fail  to  exhibit  to  those 
whom  they  look  upon  as  not  quite  the  gentleman 
— something  of  an  "outsider."  There  was  no 
question  of  the  loyalty  of  these  two  princesses, 
whether  to  their  husbands  or  to  the  flag  of  their 
new  country;  yet  to  their  very  end,  Bismarck 
delighted  in  spreading  evil  rumours  about  them 
in  order  to  undermine  their  influence  in  Germany. 
Augusta  Victoria  spent  all  the  time  possible  in  a 
country  home  on  the  Rhine,  and  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess, who  was  very  happy  with  her  husband, 
formed  a  circle  of  their  own,  lived  much  in  the 
country,  saw  of  Berlin  only  what  was  officially 
necessary,  and  held  a  salon  where  the  Bismarck- 
minded  felt  themselves  out  of  place. 

These  women  did  not  encourage  the  pan-German 
schemes  that  were  fashionable  with  Wilhelm  and 
the  Yunkers ;  they  saw  in  war  a  necessary  evil  where 
Bismarck  regarded  it  as  a  wholesome  exercise. 


H2      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

And  of  course  I^ismarck  hated  these  women.  But 
the  first  lady  of.  France,  the  beautiful  Eugenie 
—she  did  just  what  the  Prussian  Chancellor  most 
desired !  She  urged  war. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

War  of  1870 — Napoleon  and  the  Vatican — Collapse 

of   France   at   Sedan — Prussian   Treatment 

of  Prisoners 

TF  one  dared  generalize  in  so  delicate  a  matter  it 
might  be  profitable  to  comment  on  the  fact 
that  in  1870  the  warmest  support  of  Napoleon  III. 
was  the  Roman  Church  and  that  support  cost  him 
his  throne.  In  1914,  Wilhelm  II.  found  in  the 
Vatican  his  deares't  encouragement — and  he  too 
lost  his  throne.  United  Italy  has  had  but  one 
serious  enemy,  the  Pope;  and  consequently  she 
has  grown  and  prospered.  In  1870,  Austria  would 
have  yielded  to  papal  influence  and  aided  France 
had  not  the  Russian  Czar  bluntly  announced  that 
in  such  an  event  Russia  would  mobilize  on  Prussian 
behalf.  And  Bavaria  balanced  long  and  seriously 
before  she  yielded  to  the  pressure  from  Berlin; 
for  Bavaria  is  but  little  behind  Austrian  Tyrol 
in  ardent  clericalism.  The  wars  of  1870  and  1914 
have  this  of  the  paradox  that  Wilhelm  I.  stood 
s  113 


ii4      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

forth  to  the  neutral  world  as  the  champion  of 
Protestantism  and  universal  education  against  a 
priest-ridden  France.  In  1914,  a  Lutheran  Wil- 
helm  II.  represented  papal  pretensions  whilst 
Catholic  France  represented  the  right  of  a  free 
people  to  govern  itself  without  the  intermeddling 
of  an  alien  theocrat.  Napoleon  in  1870  was  urged 
to  his  doom  by  a  religious  corporation  claiming 
universal  dominion.  In  the  Holy  Land  and  Asia 
Minor  he  claimed  to  be  papal  champion  of  Chris- 
tian missions.  The  war  in  China  (1860)  had  been 
fought  for  the  same  pious  end;  and  the  mad 
venture  into  Mexico  (1864)  had  been  warmly 
advocated  by  the  beautiful  Empress  and  her  ul- 
tramontane court.  At  every  step  in  the  career 
of  Napoleon  we  have  to  hunt  for  the  influence  of 
his  evil  genius  of  Rome,  and  our  search  rarely 
leads  further  than  the  hoop  skirts  of  a  Spanish 
siren. 

Italy  could  have  been  allied  to  France  in  1870 
had  Napoleon  been  loyal  to  her  people  instead  of 
to  the  Pope.  But  again  the  interests  of  France 
were  sacrificed  to  those  of  the  Vatican  and  a 
French  army  insulted  Italy  by  acting  as  protective 
guard  of  honour  to  Pius  IX.  If  there  was  a  po- 
litical blunder  that  Napoleon  did  not  commit 
between  1848  and  his  flight  from  Sedan,  it  must 


Jobbery  of  Napoleon  III.       115 

be  that  Eugenie  failed  to  suggest  it  to  his  vacil- 
lating vision.  We  have  but  to  note  the  undeviat- 
ing,  persistent,  and  brutally  practical  line  pursued 
by  Wilhelm  I.  over  these  same  twenty- two  years 
in  order  to  appreciate  the  helpless  manner  in 
which  the  Napoleonic  ship  of  state  filled  and  backed 
and  fell  off  and  finally  broached  to  while  a  furious 
gale  smashed  the  seas  over  her  and  knocked 
the  lubberly  quartermaster  from  a  rebellious 
wheel. 

Moltke  and  Roon  had  a  well-founded  contempt 
for  the  French  military  machine,  its  general  staff, 
its  leaders,  its  equipment,  and  above  all,  for  its 
Emperor.  But  even  these  experts  were  surprised 
by  the  extent  to  which  political  jobbery  had  under- 
mined an  army  which  seemed  to  be  joking  when 
it  styled  itself  Napoleonic.  Bismarck  had  craftily 
stung  France  into  making  the  first  war  move 
(July  1 5th),  by  voting  a  vast  credit;  and  as  the 
war  party  of  the  Empress  had  loudly  boasted  that 
the  army  was  in  perfect  condition  even  down  to 
the  last  button  on  the  gaiters  of  the  youngest 
drummer  boy,  what  wonder  that  the  gallant  men 
marched  out  singing  gaily  "A  Berlin!"  little 
dreaming  that  only  as  prisoners  of  war  would 
their  refrain  be  realized. 

So  confident  of  success  was  this  army  that  they 


Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


carried  maps  of  Germany,  but  none  of  the  land 
between  Sedan,  Metz,  and  the  Rhine.  The  Paris 
papers  bragged  and  vapoured  mendaciously,  as 
did  those  of  Berlin  in  1914  —  and  from  cognate 
causes.  Napoleon  went  forth  to  the  war  amid 
mad  cries  of  Vive  VEmpereur  and  the  little  Prince 
Napoleon  went  also  to  his  "baptism  of  fire."  The 
curtain  went  up  before  an  enthusiastic  audience 
assisted  by  a  highly  paid  orchestra.  But  the 
performance  left  much  to  be  desired.  For  many 
reasons  inexplicable  to  the  average  French  tax- 
payer, the  much-promised  mobilization  moved 
slowly  everywhere  and  in  some  cases  broke  down 
completely.  The  army  of  half  a  million  veterans 
destined  to  cross  the  Rhine  and  march  upon  Berlin 
faded  away  with  painful  regularity  while,  at  the 
end  of  July,  Prussia  stood  ready  for  the  fight  with 
about  one  million,  and  wondered  when  the  French 
would  make  their  first  attack.  But  poor  France 
had  been  horribly  hoodwinked  in  regard  to  her 
fighting  forces  ;  and  after  two  weeks  of  preparation 
her  armies  were  found  floundering  about  anywhere 
between  Metz  and  the  Swiss  frontier  in  vain 
seeking  serious  contact  one  with  another  —  in 
vain  looking  for  some  general  plan  of  action;  in 
vain  seeking  to  fill  up  the  many  vacancies  in  the 
ranks,  and  above  all  looking  in  vain  for  a  ray  of 


French  Debacle  117 

hope  from  the  imperial  dotard  to  whom  it  was 
agony  to  mount  into  the  saddle. 

The  French  armies  floundered  about  within  their 
own  frontiers  during  the  blistering  heat  of  August 
— they  knew  not  what  they  were  doing — every 
map  of  France  seemed  in  German  hands  at  that 
time.  They  asked  of  their  officers,  but  these 
knew  little  more  than  the  men.  Yet  never  did 
braver  soldiers  march  than  those  veterans  of  the 
Second  Empire,  men  who  could  show  honourable 
scars  from  battlefields  far  apart  as  Pekin  or  Pueblo; 
Algiers  or  Inkerman,  Magenta  or  Solferino.  They 
feared  nothing  save  dishonour  and,  although  they 
were  but  as  one  to  three  of  Germany,  never  did 
men  fight  in  a  lost  cause  more  gallantly  than 
those  who  in  battle  after  battle  were  outnumbered 
and  outgeneraled  until  Metz  and  Sedan  crowned 
the  climax  of  imperial  incompetence. 

How  many  of  those  rugged  hands  have  I  not 
had  in  mine!  And  how  vividly  do  I  recall  the 
fortress  of  Erfurt  where  I  mingled  with  prisoners 
fresh  from  the  bloody  fields  of  Sarrebruck,  Woerth, 
and  Wissenbourg.  All  my  schoolboy  savings  I 
had  invested  in  tobacco,  but  without  that  pass- 
port I  had  a  key  to  their  confidence  acquired  by 
seven  years  of  childhood  in  Paris.  They  gave  me 
all  they  knew  and  all  they  felt.  Their  news  was 


n8      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

comparatively  fresh,  for  they  had  come  by  train 
direct  from  the  Front  and  had  much  to  tell  which 
no  French  newspapers  were  then  allowed  to  pub- 
lish. The  debacle  of  Sedan  was  foreshadowed 
in  the  earlier  encounters;  and  these  details  were 
poured  into  the  ears  of  an  American  lad  in  Thu- 
ringia  nearly  a  month  before  they  became  known 
to  the  boulevards  of  Paris. 

Never  was  a  war  more  craftily  planned  nor  more 
rapidly  carried  to  its  climax.  In  Germany  the 
daily  bulletin  was  a  daily  victory,  commencing 
with  the  first  skirmishes  at  the  beginning  of  August 
and  moving  in  a  crescendo  line  to  the  capture  of 
Napoleon  and  his  army  at  Sedan,  on  September 
2d.  Events  moved  so  rapidly,  the  German  armies 
were  so  busily  occupied  in  hard  marching  and 
fighting,  that  little  was  heard  of  atrocities  such 
as  amazed  and  outraged  the  civilized  world  in 
1914.  Never  had  a  nation  better  excuse  for 
generosity  towards  a  brave  beaten  foe  than  Prussia 
had  towards  those  whom  she  captured  in  August 
of  1870.  And  I  recall  the  generous  treatment  of 
England  towards  Boer  prisoners;  of  Uncle  Sam 
towards  those  she  took  in  the  Spanish  War,  and 
of  Russians  interned  in  Japan  (1905).  In  these 
cases  the  prisoners  were  treated  almost  as  guests 
of  the  nation  and  permitted  a  diet  even  better 


French  Prisoners  in  1870       119 

than  that  of  their  captors.  But  the  Prussian  has 
no  such  word  as  generosity  in  his  lexicon,  and  the 
French  prisoners  in  Erfurt  were  compelled  to  live 
on  the  sour  black  bread  which  to  them  is  dieteti- 
cally  a  poison,  as  would  be  to  me  certain  dishes 
that  delight  a  Laplander  or  a  Siamese.  It  would 
have  cost  little  had  Prussia  provided  her  prisoners 
with  the  food  to  which  they  were  accustomed — 
good  coffee  and  milk  and  white  bread  for  a  morn- 
ing meal — but  no,  it  would  appear  that  the  authori- 
ties desired  an  epidemic  of  dysentery — anything 
rather  than  show  to  the  conquered  the  quality 
that  makes  true  glory  to  him  who  conquers. 

Every  Frenchman  with  whom  I  talked  in  Erfurt 
accused  their  military  chiefs  of  having  been 
traitors — and  how  could  they  otherwise  explain 
their  mysterious  disasters — an  army  of  unsullied 
record  for  twenty  years  to  be  in  one  short  month 
driven  from  one  position  after  another  and  finally 
penned  up  like  sheep  for  the  shambles!  These 
were  bitter  concomitants  to  the  sour  black  bread, 
and  lost  nothing  of  their  sting  for  being  uttered 
in  a  city  of  Germany  where  the  Great  Napoleon 
had  within  the  memory  of  men  then  living  con- 
voked the  famous  " parterre  of  Kings."  The 
soldiers  of  that  Napoleon  suffered  also,  but  none 
thought  of  crying:  "Nous  sommes  Irakis!" — nor 


120      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

has  that  cry  been  heard  from  amongst  the  thou- 
sands of  brave  Frenchmen  who  have  suffered  at 
Hun  hands  in  this  Great  War.  Lee  surrendered 
unconditionally  his  whole  army — yet  not  a  man  of 
them  but  would  have  begged  for  a  benediction  at 
his  hands.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  crushing  in- 
dictment ever  sustained  by  the  second  French 
Empire  that  the  very  soldiers  of  the  Imperial 
Guard  cursed  their  officers  as  traitors. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

Coronation  of  Wilhelm  at  Versailles 

'"PHE  military  prestige  of  France  disappeared 
*  when  Napoleon  III.  surrendered  himself  to 
Wilhelm  I.  at  Sedan.  The  news  of  this  catas- 
trophe was  the  signal  for  revolution  in  Paris; 
Eugenie  fled  for  her  life  to  the  shelter  of  an  Ameri- 
can dentist  while  her  husband  was  conducted  as 
prisoner  of  war  to  the  Prussian  palace  of  Wilhelms- 
hohe.  The  Empress'  finally  reached  England  in 
disguise  where  she  was  joined  by  the  rest  of  her 
distracted  family.  Her  husband  died  in  a  couple 
of  years  at  the  early  age  of  sixty-five ;  her  son  was 
killed  by  the  assegai  of  a  Kaffir  in  Zululand,  a  few 
years  later.  But  the  evil  genius  of  latter-day 
Napoleonism  has  shown  phenomenal  vitality  in 
the  person  of  the  ex-Empress,  now  more  than 
ninety  years  of  age.  Is  it  her  punishment?  Was 
she  preserved  that  she  might  see  France  shake  off 
the  shackles  of  Romanist  domination  which  her 
bigoted  influence  had  helped  to  forge?  Has  the 

121 


122      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Greek  drama  any  more  potent  Nemesis  than  what 
broods  behind  this  venerable  sinner  when  she  is 
made  to  know  that  the  France  that  was  trailed 
in  the  dust  behind  a  Prussian  war  chariot  in  1870, 
now,  after  a  generation  of  self-government  dictates 
her  sovereign  will  to  a  demoralized  German  army? 
Let  the  Furies  force  this  knowledge  upon  her  as 
she  mumbles  over  her  beads  and  crosses  herself 
in  senile  bigotry.  Let  her  know  that  France  was 
crushed  because  Pius  IX.  was  on  her  side;  and 
make  her  now  quiver,  ye  messengers  of  historic 
vengeance,  with  the  damning  truth  that  France 
is  once  more  great  because  she  is  once  more  free. 
Wilhelm  I.  chose  the  palace  of  Louis  XIV.  as 
the  scene  of  his  coronation;  possibly  Bismarck 
chose  it  for  him — which  would  be  about  the  same 
thing.  There  was  something  dramatically  im- 
pressive in  this  grand  act,  for  it  was  this  same  Roi 
Soleil  who  had  sent  his  most  Catholic  armies  into 
the  Protestant  Upper  Rhine  land  and  driven  from 
their  farms  into  exile  thousands  of  people  whose 
only  crime  consisted  in  having  in  their  youth 
learned  from  a  different  catechism  than  his.  In 
Prussia,  Louis  XIV.  stood  for  all  that  was  tyran- 
nical in  political  or  theological  belief.  Moreover 
he  was  odious  because  of  his  artificial  and  very 
costly  display  of  wealth.  He  died  smothered  in 


Kaiser  Crowning  at  Versailles  123 

priestly  vapours  and  financial  overdrafts  which 
crippled  the  government  of  his  successors  and  did 
much  to  make  inevitable  the  bloody  liquidation 
which  commenced  with  the  fall  of  the  Bastille. 

That  Wilhelm  I.,  as  protagonist  of  a  Protestant 
Prussia,  should  crown  himself  Kaiser  of  Germany 
in  the  sanctuary  of  France's  most  Romanist  of 
Bourbons,  gave  delight  that  vented  itself  in  every 
schoolroom  throughout  the  fatherland.  Catholic 
Germany  moderated  its  joy;  but  even  there,  the 
thought  of  a  victory  over  the  hereditary  French 
foe  made  them  for  the  moment  neglect  their 
hereditary  patron  in  Rome. 

Wilhelm  had  already  been  crowned  King  of 
Prussia  in  Konigsberg.  A  decade  had  passed;  and 
now  on  the  i8th  of  January,  1871,  this  monarch, 
whose  years  numbered  nearly  three  quarters  of  a 
century,  was  called  upon  for  the  supreme  sacrifice 
— nothing  less  than  a  degradation — from  Prussian 
King  to  German  Emperor !  He  had  been  a  sancti- 
fied sovereign,  an  autocrat,  or  should  we  say  a 
monarch  divine  of  the  autodynamic  order  whose 
will  in  Prussia  was  the  only  law.  He  had  a  Reichs- 
tag and  he  had  a  chancellor  and  these  occasionally 
annoyed  him,  but  what  planter  in  the  palmy  days 
of  slavery  had  not  frequent  cause  of  complaint 
against  pet  servants  whom  he  spoiled  and  who  in 


124      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

turn  bullied  their  master!  Bismarck  was  but  a 
spoiled  butler  in  the  eyes  of  Wilhelm,  and  for  that 
reason  the  aged  monarch  submitted  to  much  for 
the  sake  of  a  loyal  and  indefatigable  service. 

And  Bismarck  had  indeed  a  difficult  job  before 
him — to  placate  the  German  people,  to  placate 
the  German  princes,  and,  finally,  to  overcome  the 
feelings  of  his  pious  and  tearful  King.  As  a  poli- 
tician Bismarck  knew  that  the  world  at  large,  and 
the  German-speaking  world  in  particular,  would 
be  pleasantly  impressed  by  the  picture  of  a  whole 
people  represented  in  the  Parliament  of  a  United 
Germany,  offering  the  Crown  of  Empire  to  the 
dean  of  a  royal  faculty.  The  picture  is  pleasing 
and  as  a  piece  of  Hohenzollern  propaganda  has 
had  much  success — notably  in  America — but 
the  picture  is  false.  Wilhelm  I.  detested  popular 
sovereignty  in  every  form;  and  the  idea  of  accept- 
ing a  crown  from  the  dirty  hands  of  the  common 
people  revolted  him  as  it  had  his  elder  brother  in 
1849.  To  the  Germans  of  Cape  Town,  Chicago, 
and  Melbourne  it  was  a  soul-soaking  consolation 
that  in  1871  the  Reichstag  had  as  its  presiding 
officer  the  same  patriot  (Simson)  who  had  in  analo- 
gous capacity  offered  the  Imperial  crown  to 
Frederick  Wilhelm  IV.,  twenty- two  years  before. 
Liederkranz  and  beer  clubs  dwell  melodiously 


Parliamentary  Deputation      125 

and  huskily  from  Hoboken  to  Milwaukee  on  the 
loving  bonds  which  bind  the  people  to  their  Kaiser, 
and  they  see  the  symbol  of  this  in  the  rugged 
popular  tribune  handing  Wilhelm  his  crown  in  the 
name  of  Wir  Deutsche!  If  anything  could  have 
made  the  idea  of  a  constitutional  empire  more 
odious  than  it  had  always  been  in  his  eyes  it  was 
this  very  coincidence  of  having  it  thrust  at  him 
by  a  representative  whose  record  was  made  in 
the  '48  Revolution.  Simson  should  have  been 
shot  long  ago,  thought  Wilhelm;  and  hard  was  the 
conflict  between  himself  and  his  chancellor  before 
he  could  be  induced  to  even  receive  the  Parlia- 
mentary deputation  with  the  barest  forms  of 
external  civility.  He  gave  them  the  plainest  hint 
that  their  services  were  not  needed;  that  this 
coronation  was  no  business  of  the  Reichstag;  that 
their  long  journey  from  Berlin  was  merely  a 
burden  to  the  railway  service. 

He  was  annoyed  by  this  intrusion  of  men  in 
frock  coats,  white  ties,  and  silk  hats  at  a  moment 
when  he  wished  a  radiant  display  of  military  uni- 
forms and  princely  pomp.  Simson  lived  to  cele- 
brate his  ninetieth  birthday,  but  Wilhelm  never 
forgave  him  the  double  impertinence  of  offering 
an  Imperial  crown  to  a  Prussian  King  first  in  1 849 
and  again  in  1871.  When  Frederick  III.  as- 


Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


cended  the  throne  in  1888  he  sought  to  do  a 
tardy  act  of  justice  by  decorating  the  venerable 
patriot,  much  to  the  disgust  of  Bismarck  and  all 
orthodox  Yunkers. 

The  people  of  Germany  shouted  jubilantly  for 
Wilhelm  Kaiser  as  all  France  had  voted  for 
Napoleon  III.  at  the  outset.  But  Wilhelm  would 
accept  of  the  crown  only  in  the  character  of  a 
legitimate  sovereign  —  and  since  he  did  not  recognize 
the  Pope's  authority  in  these  matters  the  next 
best  source  of  legitimacy  lay  in  the  unanimous 
vote  of  brother  initiates.  How  happy  would 
Napoleon  have  been  had  he  secured  a  pope  to 
place  the  crown  on  his  head,  and  indeed  it  seems 
criminal  carelessness  on  his  part  to  have  neglected 
a  feature  so  important  not  to  say  dramatic,  in 
orthodox  eyes.  Napoleon  I.  had  kidnapped  one 
for  this  purpose  and  the  concordat  was,  therefore, 
not  wholly  wasted.  What  was  there  to  prevent 
Napoleon  III.  from  securing  Pius  IX.  as  equivalent 
for  the  French  regiments  that  garrisoned  the 
papal  states!  There  was  abundant  precedent, 
to  cite  merely  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  who  first 
flooded  Rome  with  his  German  mercenaries, 
sacked  the  Holy  City  by  way  of  paying  his  men 
arrears  of  money  due  them,  and  then  compelled 
Clement  VII.  to  sanctify  him  and  crown  him  and 


Kidnapping  a  Pope  127 

bless  him,  all  of  which  happened  yesterday,  to- 
morrow, 1530,  in  point  of  fact,  but  the  date  is 
immaterial.  The  moral  is  important.  Charles  V. 
lived  and  died  honoured  by  popes  and  powers 
temporal  though  he  pillaged  Rome  and  kidnapped 
her  Pontifex  Maximus.  Poor  Louis  Napoleon 
propped  up  the  fortunes  of  Pius  at  great  cost  to 
himself,  alienated  his  people,  and  lost  his  own 
throne — all  because  he  did  not  carry  a  pope  to 
Paris  for  coronation  purposes!  Popes  are  coy; 
they  preach  peace,  but  like  many  maids,  they 
make  sheep's  eyes  at  the  burly  kidnappers  against 
whom  they  first  exhaust  their  nails  and  lamenta- 
tions. 

The  princes  of  Germany  came  tamely  to  the 
Bismarckian  call.  The  smaller  the  principality 
the  more  tamely  did  the  prince  respond.  The 
larger  ones  looked  about  for  means  of  curbing 
Prussian  ambition  and  they  succeeded  in  securing 
for  themselves  something  that  looked  remotely 
like  a  constitution.  Prussia  professed  most  liberal 
views  towards  Germany  in  general  and  insisted 
only  upon  what  was  obviously  useful  for  the  general 
welfare,  an  efficient  army,  under  the  leadership 
of  the  Prussian  monarch,  soon  to  be  called  German 
Emperor.  Bismarck  made  the  wording  of  this 
contract  sound  very  reasonable,  especially  the 


128      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

clauses  which  apparently  left  to  the  individual 
states  bountiful  measure  of  local  self-government 
and  guaranteed  the  territories  and  privileges  of 
each  little  potentate.  For  well  did  the  Chancellor 
know  that  the  essential  was  force  and  that  with 
Prussia  in  command  of  the  whole  army,  the  rest 
could  safely  be  left  to  time  and  to  economic 
legislation  already  in  operation. 


CHAPTER  XX 

Ludwig  of  Bavaria  Helps  to  Make  the  Empire — 
Wilhelm  I.  Discouraged  in  1871 

HPHE  GREAT  DAY  was  approaching,  and  with  it 
*  arose  difficulties  that  would  have  alarmed 
a  less  crafty  minister  than  Bismarck.  Wilhelm 
objected  to  surrendering  his  hereditary  title  of 
Prussian  King,  and  Ludwig  of  Bavaria  objected 
with  even  more  vehemence  to  an  Imperial  crown 
on  a  Prussian  head.  The  pious  Wilhelm  sought 
refuge  in  tears  and  prayers  while  the  more  roman- 
tic Ludwig  quenched  his  political  worries  in  long 
draughts  of  Wagner  music.  This  King  resembled 
Frederick  Wilhelm  IV.  of  Prussia  in  his  passion 
for  mediaeval  unrealities  and  the  glamour  of  an 
Imperial  crown.  Both  died  in  mad  houses  or  un- 
der the  medical  restraint  reserved  for  paranoiacs. 
Both  professed  the  loftiest  sentiments,  both  la- 
boured for  a  broader  education  amongst  their 
people  and  a  higher  standard  of  human  legislation. 
Whether  one  or  the  other  was  really  mad,  I  cannot 
9  129 


130      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

tell,  but  Prussia  was  ruled  by  Yunkers  and  Bava- 
ria by  Jesuits.  Nothing  could  be  more  natural, 
therefore,  than  for  a  jury  of  Brandenburg  to  pro- 
claim any  King  insane  who  coquetted  with  the 
wider  problems  of  humanity;  and  as  for  Munich 
and  Hohenschwangau,  their  King  must  surely  be 
possessed  of  a  Protestant  devil  if  he  encouraged 
free  schools  under  lay  teachers!  The  attitude  of 
a  Prussian  Yunker  towards  a  democrat  is  much 
the  same  as  that  of  a  Bavarian  priest  towards  a 
Lutheran,  of  an  American  dragoon  towards  an 
Apache;  not  far  from  the  feeling  which  Philip  II. 
had  for  the  reformer  of  Wittenberg  or  Louis  XIV.  for 
his  Huguenot  subjects.  We  first  adopt  the  theory 
that  whoever  holds  an  opposite  view  to  ours  must 
be  either  a  traitor  or  a  lunatic — and  in  either  case 
he  is  dangerous  to  the  community  and  should  be 
destroyed.  Whether  therefore  Ludwig  was  mad 
or  not  matters  little,  he  was  an  enemy  to  many 
pretensions  of  the  Papacy  and  he  fell.  The  pre- 
text for  his  fall  I  refer  to  those  who  study  history 
amongst  pigeonholes  and  card  catalogues. 

He  had  been  taken  from  his  university  studies 
in  order  to  succeed  his  father  on  the  throne,  and 
had  from  the  outset  (1864)  been  called  upon  to 
face  in  Bavaria  political  problems  that  would 
have  taxed  a  strong  statesman,  and  which  easily 


Mad  Ludwig  131 

overwhelmed  a  modern  Hamlet.  He  dreamed  of 
a  Germanic  Empire  but  woke  to  the  sound  of 
Prussian  artillery  forging  the  federation  by  means 
of  "blood  and  iron."  He  dreamed  of  a  League 
of  Nations  inspired  by  love  of  the  true  and  the 
good  and  the  beautiful;  he  woke  to  see  Prussia 
first  crunching  up  and  then  swallowing  down  com- 
placently the  successive  members  of  this  flabby 
fabric.  He  dreamed  of  educating  his  people  and 
woke  to  find  a  peasantry  however  loyal  to  their 
King,  still  more  loyal  to  their  parish  priest.  Then 
Ludwig  prayed  and  God  sent  him  Richard  Wagner. 
Here  at  last  was  the  Mephisto  who  could  restore 
serenity  to  the  melancholy  spirit  which  had  been 
profoundly  acerbated  by  contact  with  rude  reali- 
ties. Forget  not  that  Wilhelm  had  prepared  his 
abdication  document  and  had  found  a  Bismarck! 
Ludwig  was  born  under  less  happy  conjunctions. 
He  loved  the  fairy  world  evoked  by  Wagnerian 
magic;  flying  Dutchmen  were  to  him  more  inter- 
esting than  towboats  on  the  Danube;  the  Rhine 
was  in  his  eyes  a  reservoir  of  beautiful  nymphs, 
and  the  recesses  of  his  Alpine  parks  concealed 
mythical  monsters  destined  to  delight  him  when 
mechanically  projected  in  his  court  opera.  Lud- 
wig could  not  save  Wagner  from  the  Jesuits  who 
chased  him  out  of  Bavaria  in  1866  as  it  had  ex- 


Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


pelled  the  beautiful  and  accomplished  Lola  Montez 
in  1848;  but  he  aided  the  author  of  Lohengrin  to 
the  extent  of  his  influence  and  purse;  and  it  is  to 
this  remarkable  friendship  that  Bavarians  should 
now  be  grateful  when  they  find  their  little  state  a 
Mecca  to  the  world  of  art. 

Ludwig  did  much  for  his  country  by  erecting 
palaces  that  are  architectural  marvels  and  by 
encouraging  the  sister  arts  in  every  field.  Of 
him  it  might  be  said  that  when  he  ascended  the 
throne  (1864)  he  became  head  of  a  German  state 
resembling  a  dozen  other  ones;  and  that  when  he 
died,  Bavaria,  in  spite  of  her  military  disasters 
and  political  failures,  had  become  not  merely  the 
most  important  among  the  secondary  states  of  the 
German  Empire,  but  in  what  is  essential  to  civili- 
zation, the  superior  of  Berlin.  All  this  was  the 
work  partly  of  Ludwig  I.  (who  abdicated  with 
Lola  Montez!)  but  much  more  of  Ludwig  II., 
whom  the  priests  harried  to  his  death. 

When  the  Imperial  crown  was  being  discussed 
at  Versailles,  Ludwig  II.  was  no  longer  on  speak- 
ing terms  with  his  ministers  and  he  had  no  Bis- 
marck to  speak  for  him.  In  vain  did  messengers 
attempt  to  draw  him  from  his  happy  retreats  — 
he  would  communicate  only  on  paper  and  on  no 
account  leave  a  scene  of  enchantment  for  a  noisy 


Bavaria  in  1870  133 

railway  ride  to  the  Prussian  headquarters.  Wil- 
helm  would  listen  to  no  Kaiser  proposition  save 
from  the  lips  of  his  brethren  in  the  purple,  and 
here  was  the  great  day  at  hand  and  the  principal 
actor,  the  Hamlet  of  the  play,  declined  to  make 
appearance — could  not  even  be  approached  on  the 
subject  of  his  part  in  the  great  drama!  The 
clerical  or  ultramontane  influence  in  the  govern- 
ment was  of  course  profoundly  annoyed  at  the 
idea  of  adding  to  the  prestige  of  a  Lutheran  King; 
and  Ludwig  himself  had  a  wholly  different  con- 
ception of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  than  that  put 
on  paper  by  Bismarck.  However,  the  knot  was 
finally  cut  by  a  letter,  which  the  Prussian  Chan- 
cellor framed  so  well  that  Ludwig  drew  from  it 
the  pleasing  surmise  that  Bavaria  after  all  was 
to  play  the  most  important  or  at  least  the  most 
dramatic  r61e;  and  all  this  without  the  painful 
journey  to  Versailles.  Bismarck  could  write  very 
persuasively;  and  never  did  he  exert  himself  more 
or  to  better  purpose  than  in  an  autograph  letter 
to  the  distracted  Ludwig  in  which  he  posed  as  the 
faithful  old  servant  who  honoured  the  King  of 
Bavaria  and  desired  his  happiness  and  fame  above 
all  things.  He  pictured  the  grand  moment  when 
all  the  kings  and  kinglets  of  the  Empire  would 
bow  before  Ludwig  and  from  him  receive  a  sum- 


134      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

mons  to  recognize  Wilhelm  as  Emperor.  Who 
could  resist  such  an  appeal  to  histrionic  impulse! 
To -patronize  a  Wagner  was  truly  noble — but  to 
create  also  a  German  Kaiser!  Could  he  resist? 
Of  course  not!  And  so  at  the  eleventh  hour 
Bavaria  gave  her  kingly  autograph  to  a  letter  of 
Bismarck's  dictation  which,  when  read  aloud  to 
a  world  ignorant  of  state  machination,  sounded 
as  though  a  jubilant  Germany  had  rallied  to  the 
Hohenzollern  throne  at  the  call  of  a  Wittelsbach 
herald. 

How  serious  these  moments  were  which  preceded 
the  1 8th  of  January,  1871,  it  is  not  easy  to  exag- 
gerate— they  recall  dark  moments  of  1848  and  1862. 
The  German  schoolboys  of  that  time  heard  and 
saw  nothing  but  outward  jubilation  and  triumph- 
ant bulletins.  The  pictorial  press  flooded  every 
home  with  elaborate  pictures  alleged  to  have  been 
drawn  by  eyewitnesses  but  really  done  in  the 
studios  of  Leipzig  and  Berlin;  these  made  one 
see  the  venerable  Wilhelm  like  a  reincarnate  and 
bewhiskered  Siegfried  cantering  majestically  amid 
the  exploding  shells  of  an  orthodox  battlefield, 
and  escorted  by  various  German  princes  who 
gazed  rapturously  upon  their  beloved  leader  as 
though  to  symbolize  the  yearning  of  all  German 
states  for  Prussian  rule.  Of  course  we  all  believed 


Versailles  135 

these  pious  fabrications  then  and  Germany  is 
carefully  suckled  from  generation  to  generation 
on  text-books  that  bear  no  more  resemblance  to 
history  than  does  the  Athanasian  Creed  to  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  While,  therefore,  the 
banners  of  Prussia  are  frantically  waving  at 
Versailles  and  salvos  of  artillery  are  announcing 
that  the  German  Empire  has  been  born  again  in 
the  war  lord  of  Brandenburg,  let  us  follow  this 
triumphant  chief  to  his  writing  desk  where  he  can 
divest  himself  for  a  moment  of  imperial  burdens 
and  write  the  truth  to  his  aged  wife  Augusta: 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  tell  you  how  wretchedly 
downcast  I  have  been  these  past  days  owing  partly 
to  the  high  responsibility  which  I  am  now  called  upon 
to  accept,  partly  to  my  suffering  when  I  see  the  title 
of  Prussian  pushed  into  the  background.  Yesterday 
I  was  so  bitter  and  discouraged  when  the  matter  was 
discussed  that  I  was  on  the  point  of  abdicating  and 
handing  everything  over  to  Fritz!  (Crown  Prince). 
Only  after  having  turned  myself  to  God  in  deep  and 
searching  prayer  was  I  able  to  recover  my  serenity 
and  strength! 


CHAPTER  XXI 

Prussia  Dictates  the  Terms  of  Peace  in  1871   and 
Wilhelm  Makes  his  Third  Entry  into  Paris 

\  \  7ILHELM  I.  had  selected  the  i8th  of  Janu- 
*  "  ary,  because  on  that  date  one  hundred 
and  seventy  years  before,  Prussia  had  been  raised 
to  the  rank  of  a  kingdom;  and  he  desired  above 
all  else  to  advertise  the  fact  that  this  war  and  its 
imperial  ending  was  a  Prussian,  not  a  mere  German 
achievement.  The  propaganda  press  of  the  day 
studiously  fed  the  receptive  public  with  carefully 
concocted  reports  showing  the  venerable  Wilhelm 
in  the  theatrical  robes  of  a  Charlemagne  or  Bar- 
barossa  rolling  his  eyes  to  heaven  whilst  the  Bava- 
rian King  frantically  acts  the  part  of  an  apoplectic 
choragos  to  a  horde  of  cheering  princes  and 
parliamentary  dignitaries.  Bismarck  knew  that 
this  picture  would  do  good;  and  it  is  thus  that 
the  average  German  still  imagines  that  historic 
moment.  He  does  not  wish  to  hear  that  Ludwig 
of  Bavaria  was  absent;  still  less  that  Wilhelm  I. 

136 


Armistice  137 

rejected  with  scorn  the  mere  idea  of  exchanging 
his  Prussian  uniform  for  any  robes  however  im- 
perial. It  was  to  him  a  ceremony  purely  military 
and  as  such  carried  out  with  no  more  regard  for 
public  opinion  or  convenience  than  a  swearing 
in  of  Potsdam  recruits.  The  press  of  the  world 
magnified  the  setting  of  this  dramatic  scene; 
for  that  press  knew  little  beyond  what  Bismarck 
wished  them  to  know. 

He  was  proclaimed  Kaiser  whilst  his  guns  were 
bombarding  Paris;  and,  as  though  the  struggle 
against  a  besieging  Germany  was  not  enough, 
civil  war  added  its  horrors;  and  the  Prussian  army 
of  occupation  could  complacently  eat  its  three 
meals  a  day  whilst  French  killed  French  in  a 
struggle  that  cost  about  fifty  thousand  lives 
and  many  monuments  which  Paris  prized  as  her 
dearest. 

A  few  days  after  Wilhelm  became  Emperor, 
and  on  the  birthday  of  his  grandson,  the  fugitive 
of  Amerongen  (January  27th),  Bismarck  dictated 
an  armistice  to  Jules  Favre,  which  was  followed 
by  a  preliminary  treaty  of  peace  (February  26th) 
dictated  to  Thiers.  This  was  finally  made  formal 
by  the  death  sentence  delivered  at  Frankfort 
(May  10,  1871);  a  sentence  that  Germans  called 
a  treaty  of  peace,  but  which  her  victims  could 


138      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

regard  only  as  a  summons  to  prepare  for  a  life 
and  death  duel  in  1914. 

If  France  escaped  any  humiliation  that  Prussia 
could  impose  upon  her  between  the  investment  of 
Paris  (September  19,  1870)  and  the  final  act  of 
that  war,  be  sure  that  it  caused  pain  to  Bismarck. 
With  the  naive  bluntness  of  a  Genseric,  he  roared 
with  joy  when  a  French  village  was  wrecked  and 
civilians  shot  who  had  been  suspected  of  defending 
their  homes.  He  growled  his  disfavour  when  he 
heard  of  prisoners — they  should  have  been  shot! 
And  as  for  the  sentimentalists  who  objected  to 
the  bombardment  of  Paris,  towards  them  he  could 
not  be  respectful  even  though  married  to  Hohen- 
zollerns.  We  may  easily  picture  the  vandalism  of 
officers  and  men  when  such  talk  from  the  Chan- 
cellor's table  reached  the  scattered  regiments! 
Is  it  a  wonder  that  the  name  Bismarck  and 
Prussien  became  bywords  for  barbarity,  lust,  and 
sacrilege  wherever  French  villages  felt  the  burden 
of  German  occupation?  With  my  father  I  called 
upon  many  of  his  old  friends  in  Paris,  immediately 
after  the  war;  and  listened  amazed  while  tale 
after  tale  of  atrocity  was  related  circumstantially 
by  men  of  mature  age  and  exalted  character. 
Not  until  1914  could  I  fully  believe  that  Prussians, 
in  1870,  could  act  in  conquered  villages  of  France 


Thiers  and  Favre  139 

after  the  manner  of  legendary  Huns  in  Roman 
provinces.  Thiers  and  Favre  were  notable  schol- 
ars, men  of  letters,  and  statesmen.  But  in  the 
cabinet  of  Bismarck  they  shrivelled  to  the  pro- 
portions of  a  schoolboy  under  the  frowns  of 
an  offended  master.  The  Iron  Chancellor,  like  his 
King,  never  appeared  save  in  armour,  for  he  appre- 
ciated the  moral  value  of  a  heavy  cavalry  sabre 
and  shiny  steel  helmet.  Thiers  was  then  seventy- 
four  years  old,  the  Nestor  of  historians  and  a  power 
in  the  Republic  of  Letters.  Favre  was  his  junior 
— albeit  six  years  older  than  Bismarck — and  was 
then  in  the  front  rank  of  the  Paris  bar  to  say 
nothing  of  literature.  But  the  event  would  have 
been  the  same  had  a  ghostly  deputation  with 
Moliere,  Voltaire,  and  Montesquieu  pleaded  for 
mercy.  France  was  to  drink  of  the  dregs  and 
Bismarck  grinned  at  every  gulp.  He  played  with 
the  French  plenipotentiaries  much  as  might  a 
burly  ruffian  who  is  eating  the  lunch  of  a  passing 
school  child,  amused  by  the  infantile  explosions 
of  anger  and  tears.  Burly  ruffians  may  have  a 
run  of  luck,  but  the  little  child  grows  up  and  some- 
times lives  to  see  her  tormentor  punished.  Well 
had  it  been  for  Wilhelm  had  he  listened  to  the 
pleadings  of  Thiers  and  Favre  rather  than  the 
harsh  terms  which  harmonized  with  his  predatory 


Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


instincts.  France  had  to  accept,  and  so  peace 
preliminaries  were  signed.  Immediately  after- 
wards Wilhelm  marched  as  Imperator  Triumphato 
(March  ist)  through  the  Napoleonic  Arc  de  Tri- 

omphe  and  camped  as  conqueror  in  the  Champs 
s 

Ely  sees.  This  was  necessary  in  order  that  nothing 
be  omitted  that  could  humiliate  a  defeated  enemy. 
In  1918,  Prussia  was  the  defeated  enemy,  yet 
France  halted  at  the  Rhine.  Sentimentally  this 
was  noble,  but  politically  a  blunder  ;  for  we  should 
not  act  softly  towards  one  who  misunderstands 
our  motives.  The  Prussian  will  always  hate  us 
with  the  malice  of  a  beaten  bully;  but  now  he 
despises  us  as  well  for  not  having  exploited  the 
power  that  was  ours.  Had  we  marched  our 
armies  across  the  whole  of  Germany  in  so  leisurely 
a  manner  as  to  have  occupied  at  some  time  or 
other  every  town  and  village  between  the  Rhine 
and  the  Baltic,  the  children  of  today  would  have 
told  the  tale  to  their  grandchildren  who  in  turn 
would  repeat  it  to  a  generation  yet  unborn;  and 
so  for  a  century  to  come  the  land  of  the  Hun  would 
be  a  land  of  peace  because  it  remembered  the 
millions  of  men  who  in  the  great  war  chased  their 
Kaiser  into  exile,  scattered  their  boasted  armies, 
bottled  up  their  big  navy,  and  promenaded  in 
derision  all  over  Deutschland  before  embarking 


Entry  into  Paris  141 

for  their  homes.  That  was  a  lesson  sorely  needed, 
and  if  they  do  not  receive  it,  in  1919,  they  will  all 
believe  that  we  were  afraid  to  push  forward  any 
farther — and  that  means  a  new  war  not  far  off ! 

Wilhelm  had  twice  before  marched  with  Prus- 
sian troops  into  the  French  capital  (1814  and  1815), 
but  this  glorious  third  was  the  culmination  of  all 
earthly  ambition.  In  the  wars  against  the  great 
Napoleon,  Prussia  was  only  one  of  many  allies 
and  her  army  had  to  be  equipped  and  paid  by 
England.  Now,  however,  her  King  commanded 
the  strongest  military  organization  in  the  whole 
world,  and  rode  into  the  capital  of  a  shattered 
empire  the  more  proudly  for  feeling  that  he  was 
the  first  Caesar  in  a  new  and  vigorous  nation 
called  by  divine  grace  to  exterminate  a  people 
that  had  survived  their  military  fame  and  had, 
therefore,  merited  their  fate. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

Wilhelm  I.  Makes  Berlin  Capital  of  Germany — Some 
Remarks  on  this — A  Monument  to  Schiller 

DERLIN  on  the  i6th  of  June  in  the  year  1871 
*— '  was  the  centre  of  the  world  to  all  who 
honoured  military  glory  personified  by  Wilhelm  I. 
From  sunrise  of  this  very  long  day  the  streets  of 
the  Prussian  capital  were  crowded  with  hurrying 
families  bearing  babies  and  lunch-baskets,  all 
seeking  a  spot  whence  they  might  cheer  their 
sovereign  and  his  troops.  All  day  long  I  watched 
the  flow  of  interminable  bayonets,  guns,  and 
sabres  and  late  that  night  I  fell  asleep  in  an 
Imperial  metropolis  wild  with  joy  of  conquest 
and  shouting  itself  hoarse  with  Die  Wacht  am 
Rhein.  Yet  this  was  merely  the  normal  garrison 
of  this  one  city  which  at  that  time  had  no  better 
water  supply  than  corner  pumps,  and  no  moie 
complicated  sewerage  than  the  street  gutters 
leading  into  the  Spree.  But  war  throws  glamour 
over  civil  affairs;  and  in  the  unanimous  ovation 

142 


French  Indemnity  143 

of  which  Kaiser  Wilhelm  was  the  object,  it  would 
have  taken  keen  eyes  to  note  that  in  the  cheering 
crowd  was  a  large  proportion  of  citizens  who  while 
they  forgave  much  for  the  sake  of  the  French 
milliards  yet  grudged  France  the  liberty  of  which 
they  were  themselves  deprived.  France  paid  off 
the  indemnity  within  two  years,  to  the  amazement 
of  her  conquerors;  she  also  exhibited  to  an  aston- 
ished world  an  example  of  self-control  and  national 
dignity  that  was  the  more  striking  for  coming  on 
the  heels  of  an  administration  half -priest  and  half- 
Caesar. 

The  speculative  historian  would  gladly  have  re- 
corded the  abdication  of  Wilhelm  on  June  16, 
1871,  at  the  moment  when  his  life  work  had  been 
done;  the  spoliation  of  France  accomplished  and 
an  Imperial  German  army  restored  to  the  united 
Fatherland.  Frederick  William,  his  eldest  son, 
was  now  forty  years  of  age,  endeared  to  the  army 
by  his  interest  in  soldier  welfare  and  to  the  people 
even  more  so  because  of  his  known  attachment  to 
constitutional  liberty  as  opposed  to  merely  mili- 
tary autocracy.  But  the  speculative  historian 
is  listened  to  impatiently  and  we  shall  have  yet 
seventeen  more  years  of  the  Greise  Kaiser — years 
filled  with  bitterness  and  Bismarckian  failure. 
By  the  time  death  opens  a  way  for  Frederick  III. 


144      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

to  ascend  the  throne  he  will  do  so  only  as  a  very 
sick  man — nearly  sixty  years  of  age — a  man  who 
has  been  deliberately  kept  away  from  active  pub- 
lic life,  because  suspected  of  opinions  which  the 
Yunkers  call  heresy  but  which  we  consider  to  be 
conservative. 

Wilhelm,  like  Bismarck,  had  nothing  of  the 
magnanimous  in  his  nature,  however  much  both 
of  them  cultivated  that  reputation  throughout 
the  provinces.  At  the  Versailles  coronation,  not 
Germany,  but  Prussia,  was  symbolized,  by  the 
soldier  dress  of  the  Hohenzollern  and  by  the  regi- 
mental banners  about  him.  How  little  enthusiasm 
for  him  there  was  in  Bavaria  may  be  gathered 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  not  until  three  days 
after  the  Versailles  proclamation,  that  the  Bavarian 
Congress  concluded  to  recognize  the  Prussian 
pretensions ;  and  this  conclusion  was  reached  only 
after  ten  days  of  violent  debate  and  by  a  vote 
of  1 02  to  48.  But  Wilhelm  almost  hoped  that 
Bavaria  and  others  would  secede  from  the  Con- 
federation; in  which  case  he  could  easily  conquer 
by  the  sword  what  negotiation  had  failed  to 
accomplish. 

Berlin  is  a  bad  capital  for  Germany  geographi- 
cally, ethnologically,  and  politically.  Leipzig  or 
Weimar  has  higher  claims  on  each  of  these 


Capital  of  Germany  H5 

grounds;  but  the  sword  has  decided,  and  the 
whole  weight  of  Bismarckian  influence  has  gone 
to  make  Berlin  an  artificial  metropolis.  Prussian 
methods  are  military  and  therefore  we  find  in 
Berlin  the  reflection  of  that  infinitely  careful  de- 
tail that  has  made  the  German  army  the  model 
for  all  others  and  the  German  capital  worthy  of  so 
perfect  an  army.  The  provincial  Prussian  capital, 
which  had  little  more  than  half  a  million  when  I 
knew  it  first,  has  grown  like  a  Johannesburg  or 
Chicago ;  but  its  growth  is  like  that  of  the  German 
navy,  the  product  of  hothouse  conditions.  The 
new  Germany  forced  all  roads  to  centre  in  Berlin; 
and  all  administrative  bureaus  were  gradually 
concentrated  here.  It  was  the  policy  of  Bismarck 
to  compel  all  who  sought  public  employment  to 
frequent  his  capital,  if  not  his  antechamber;  and 
even  the  tourist  public  discovered  that  wherever 
in  Germany  they  might  wish  to  travel,  all  trains, 
or  at  least  all  good  ones,  compelled  a  halt  in  the 
Wilhelmstrasse . 

The  new  Empire  controlled  not  merely  a  Prussia 
much  enlarged,  but  claimed  exclusive  control  of 
the  conquered  French  provinces,  of  the  new  Ger- 
man navy,  and  of  the  monster  colonial  empire 
that  was  about  to  develop;  Aside  from  the  large 
permanent  garrisons  of  Berlin,  Spandau,  and  Pots- 


i46      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

dam,  officers  from  all  over  were  called  to  the  new 
capital  on  general  staff  duty  or  for  examination. 
Museums,  professional  schools,  churches,  monu- 
ments, barracks,  these  increased  as  did  the  open- 
ing of  new  streets  and  all  the  concomitants  of  an 
efficiently  administered  city.  Sewage  farms  were 
laid  out  in  the  sandy  suburbs,  the  waters  of  Spree 
and  Havel  were  kept  free  from  pollution,  an  excel- 
lent water  supply  was  furnished  in  abundance, 
paving,  lighting,  and  sewerage  all  became  models 
to  other  cities,  and  municipal  markets  at  many 
convenient  points  enabled  the  farmers  to  bring 
their  produce  direct  to  the  hausfrau  and  thus  make 
this  capital  no  less  remarkable  for  political  effi- 
ciency than  for  low  cost  of  living.  Comparisons 
are  rarely  pleasant  to  both  but  candour  compels 
me  to  make  my  statement  clear  by  saying  that 
one  who  knows  the  administration  of  Berlin  enters 
New  York  with  the  same  disgust  that  one  of  us 
might  feel  on  first  encountering  the  sanitary  dis- 
positions of  Canton  or  the  Bagdad  of  pre-British 
days. 

Yet  Berlin  was  not  satisfied.  She  built  monu- 
ment after  monument  and  barrack  after  barrack, 
but  the  great  world  persisted  in  preferring  the 
capital  of  spoliated  France  to  the  parvenu  atmos- 
phere that  blew  through  the  Linden  to  the  King's 


A  Pious  Kaiser  147 

palace.  We  youngsters  of  1870  were  not  specu- 
lative philosophers  and  we  rushed  frantically  to 
honour  the  heroes  of  the  moment,  to  make  our 
bows  before  the  scholarly  Moltke,  when  we  were 
so  fortunate  as  to  meet  him  as  he  strolled  to  or 
from  the  General  Staff  Building.  He  always  re- 
turned our  salutes  with  kindly  gravity  and  we 
felt  proud  at  having  had  so  great  a  God  to 
worship. 

We  did  not  know  then  that  there  were  others 
in  Germany  besides  those  in  uniform;  much  less 
did  we  know  that  there  was  a  social  excommuni- 
cation pronounced  by  the  Prussian  All  Highest 
against  those  who  were  so  reckless  as  to  think  for 
themselves  'in  matters  political.  We  of  the  un- 
thinking world  saw  only  soldiers  and  cheering 
mobs  and  a  patriarchal  Kaiser  who  said  he  loved 
his  people  and  who  fell  upon  his  knees  and  burst 
into  tears  and  sought  divine  guidance  and  wrestled 
inwardly  like  another  Augustine  of  Hippo  Regius. 
We  have  of  this  venerable  Kaiser  biographies  with- 
out number  and  they  are  mainly  panegyrics  as  of 
some  national  demi-god  whom  it  would  be  sac- 
rilegious to  approach  save  as  a  worshipper.  We 
have  worn  out  much  of  our  eyesight  in  the  search 
after  the  truth  regarding  this  period,  and  from  this 
effort  we  rise  as  from  thumbing  an  orthodox 


Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


catalogue  of  Roman  saints,  more  bewildered  than 
edified. 

If  Berlin  is  the  dullest  capital  in  Europe,  we 
must  admit  that  it  has  been  made  in  the  image  of 
Wilhelm  to  whom  God's  landscape  appeals  prima- 
rily as  a  field  of  military  manoeuvre.  Berlin  had 
no  interest  to  him  save  as  the  headquarters  of  an 
army,  where  he  dispatched  a  great  deal  of  routine 
work.  The  matter  of  municipal  adornment  left 
him  cold,  but  he  saw  to  it  that  the  strategic  points 
of  the  city  were  so  disposed  that  his  troops  could 
readily  command  all  approaches  to  the  palace  and 
sweep  away  any  mob  by  a  timely  application  of 
grapeshot.  Of  his  ninety-one  years  of  life,  more 
than  eighty  had  been  spent  in  the  uniform  of  a 
Prussian  guardsman,  and  I  doubt  if  he  had  ever 
met  a  dozen  civilians  to  whom  he  would  have  given 
the  title  of  gentleman.  In  Berlin  he  recognized 
only  Prussian  officers  as  fit  for  court  society,  and 
if  he  made  an  exception  under  pressure  from  his 
wife  it  was  well  understood  that  such  exception 
should  never  be  treated  as  a  precedent. 

Bismarck,  after  the  Treaty  of  Frankfort,  ap- 
peared to  the  outside  world  as  having  reached  a 
level  little  below  divinity,  yet  in  the  eyes  of  Wil- 
helm he  had  achieved  but  secondary  honours  so 
long  as  these  were  limited  to  decorations,  titles, 


Bismarck  Made  General       H9 

and  emoluments  to  which  any  civilian  might  as- 
pire. The  culmination  of  earthly  glory  to  the  Iron 
Chancellor  came  when  late  in  life  the  Emperor 
finally  conferred  upon  him  the  titular  rank  of 
" Prussian  General."  Hitherto,  he  had  always 
worn  the  uniform  of  a  militia  or  reserve  officer, 
but  now  he  was  to  be  admitted  as  knight  of  the 
Kaiser's  round  table,  to  be  a  real  Prussian  paladin, 
not  a  mere  prince  or  statesman.  We  must  imagine 
a  Cobden,  or  a  Bright,  or  a  Gladstone  compelled 
in  his  old  age  to  exchange  the  toga  for  a  cuirass, 
and  address  the  forum  with  a  sword  clattering 
at  his  heels.  And  we  must  go  a  step  farther 
and  learn  that  Wilhelm  was  not  joking  when  he 
dubbed  Bismarck  a  general  nor  did  the  Iron 
Chancellor  flinch  when  his  master  said  to  him: 
"All  your  past  honours  are  trifling  compared  with 
the  one  which  I  am  now  about  to  accord  you." 

The  dulness  of  the  Berlin  court  is  the  dulness 
of  any  barrack  room  society,  particularly  a  society 
where  woman  plays  a  subordinate  r61e  and  the 
men  are  all  of  the  same  mind.  It  is  not  merely 
Frenchmen  who  glorify  their  Paris,  or  Britons 
who  browse  lovingly  about  Fleet  Street  and  Chel- 
sea. All  the  world  goes  gladly  to  places  where 
great  men  have  been  appreciated  and  great 
thoughts  encouraged;  the  Quai  Voltaire  appeals 


Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


to  the  scholar  of  every  clime  with  a  force  little 
less  than  Paternoster  Row  or  Westminster.  Berlin 
has  straighter  avenues  than  either  Paris  or  London 
—  we  may  admit,  also,  that  she  has  more  monu- 
ments. But  her  triumph  is  in  the  quantity  rather 
than  in  the  quality  of  the  wares  that  she  offers; 
and,  after  admiring  many  miles  of  the  Spree  city, 
we  regret  that  it  is  not  interesting.  In  my  young- 
ster days  Berlin  was  congested  with  statues  of 
Prussian  kings  and  military  heroes  and  allegorical 
figures  symbolizing  warlike  triumph.  But  there 
were  scarce  any  monuments  for  the  great  writers, 
reformers,  and  thinkers.  Wilhelm  saw  no  good  in 
such  men;  he  knew  but  one  kind  of  great  man  — 
the  soldier  who  had  shot  down  enemies  of  mon- 
archy. Unfortunately  nearly  every  German  whom 
the  world  held  to  be  great  had  at  some  time  been 
treated  as  an  enemy  to  the  monarch;  for  to  think 
independently  is  frequently  high  treason  in  Berlin. 
The  Age  of  Wilhelm  is  the  Golden  Age  of  Ger- 
man scholarship,  art,  and  music,  but  he  never 
knew  it  save  as  a  period  of  blood  and  iron  and 
rebellious  agitation.  Schiller  waited  long  for  a 
monument  in  Berlin;  but  Schiller  to  Wilhelm 
was  like  a  Luther  to  Madrid.  Schiller  had  sung 
of  William  Tell  and  liberty  and  for  that  had  been 
ostracized  by  all  governments  friendly  to  the  Holy 


William  Tell  151 

Alliance.  When,  therefore,  the  citizens  of  Berlin 
clamoured  for  a  monument  to  their  great  poet, 
Wilhelm  saw  in  this  a  revival  of  revolutionary 
disturbance.  He  declined  to  countenance  by  his 
presence  the  unveiling  of  so  obnoxious  a  person; 
he  would  not  permit  that  effigy  to  be  exposed  at 
a  point  where  he  would  have  to  see  it  on  his  daily 
drive.  Whether  Wilhelm  ever  read  a  play  of  the 
great  dramatist  I  know  not,  but  when  he  was 
approached  on  the  subject  of  honouring  the  un- 
veiling with  his  presence  he  answered  with  scorch- 
ing finality:  "Schiller — Schiller — is  there  such  a 
name  amongst  my  officers!*' 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

War  between  Pius  IX.  and  Wilhelm  I. — CEcumenical 
Council   of    1870 — Its   Effect   in    Germany 

C  HORTLY  after  the  triumphant  entry  of  Wil- 
helm I.  into  the  new  capital  of  united  Ger- 
many, Victor  Emmanuel  made  an  entry  vastly 
more  impressive  into  the  ancient  capital  of  Italy. 
For  centuries  Rome  had  been  ruled  by  a  corpora- 
tion of  celibate  priests  who  had  finally  succeeded 
in  making  the  papal  states  a  byword  for  corruption 
amongst  officials  and  brigandage  on  the  highways. 
The  new  Italy  demanded  its  ancient  capital  and 
her  army  lost  no  time  in  taking  possession.  Victor 
Emmanuel  was  hailed  as  liberator  by  those  who  had 
fought  under  Mazzini  and  Garibaldi,  and  cursed 
or  excommunicated  by  Pius  IX.  from  his  Vatican 
retreat. 

During  the  past  three  German  wars  there  had 
been  no  time  for  anything  but  the  thunder  of 
artillery  made  by  Krupp.  In  1871,  however, 
the  thunders  made  in  the  Vatican  rumbled  over 

152 


Syllabus  153 

the  face  of  the  waters  and  raised  echoes  in  every 
hamlet  where  Catholics  asked  themselves  whether 
it  was  better  to  be  a  good  citizen  or  a  dutiful 
Romanist.  Wilhelm  was  an  autocrat  by  practice 
and  conviction.  He  thought  well  of  papal  auto- 
cracy because  in  the  alleged  successor  of  Peter  he 
recognized  a  monarch  who  was  generally  opposed 
to  socialism,  democracy,  and  most  forms  of  popu- 
lar initiative.  Wilhelm,  however,  hotly  resented 
any  meddling  with  his  German  subjects  and  when 
Pius  IX.  launched  his  so-called  Syllabus  in  1864, 
and  then  followed  it  up  by  a  blasphemous  claim 
to  infallibility  (1870),  the  Grand  Lama  of  Luther- 
anism  scented  the  enemy  and  acted  accordingly 
with  characteristic  directness.  He  gave  notice 
that  henceforth  all  teachers  of  religion,  morals, 
or  the  alphabet,  must  swear  allegiance  to  the  head 
of  the  state;  they  must  be  subject  to  the  law  of 
the  land;  Prussia  would  tolerate  no  priests  who 
were  followers  of  two  flags;  they  must  choose 
between  that  of  Pope  or  Kaiser.  This  is  only 
one  manifestation  of  the  eternal  conflict  between 
Church  and  State.  Republican  France  had  to 
undergo  a  long  and  painful  struggle  before  she 
asserted  the  right  of  her  people  to  free  schools 
untainted  by  alien  or  papal  direction.  Italy 
has  also  had  to  incur  papal  anathema  in  her 


154      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

struggle  for  liberty  of  conscience;  and  the  new 
states  of  Bohemia  and  Poland  have  yet  that  fight 
before  them. 

Yet  Pius  IX.  ascended  the  papal  throne  (1846) 
acclaimed  like  Napoleon  III.  as  a  reformer  and 
friend  of  liberty !  But  this  momentary  popularity 
was  soon  exchanged  for  the  character  of  a  theo- 
cratic monarch  which  he  retained  to  the  close 
of  his  eighty-six  years.  Both  Wilhelm  and  Pius 
were  embittered  in  1848,  for  each  had  been  forced 
to  fly  from  his  own  people  amid  groans  and  hisses 
— in  Berlin  the  mob  was  Lutheran,  in  Rome  it 
was  Catholic — otherwise  things  were  much  the 
same.  Pius,  like  Wilhelm,  had  been  crossed  in 
love  and  each  had  soldierly  ambition;  although 
the  military  ardour  of  the  Italian  was  checked  by 
the  medical  board  who  found  him  unfit  because  of 
epilepsy.  When  we  consider,  however,  the  notable 
proportion  of  illustrious  conquerors  who  have 
been  marked  by  this  infirmity  it  would  seem  as 
though  this  alone  would  make  us  expect  in  Pius 
a  career  out  of  the  ordinary.  Nor  are  we  disap- 
pointed. Like  most  men  of  abnormal  if  not 
morbid  mentality,  Pius  early  became  conscious 
of  miraculous  assistance  in  material  affairs.  He 
had  been  much  relieved  if  not  cured  by  some 
priest  who  made  an  incantation  over  him  accom- 


(Ecumenical  Council          155 

panied  by  the  laying  on  of  hands;  and  later,  on  a 
journey  to  South  America,  he  recorded  some  super- 
natural interposition  that  saved  his  life.  Need 
we  wonder  then  that  he  later  caused  the  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  anaemic  and  hysterical  girl  who  made 
Lourdes  famous  by  her  several  interviews  with 
the  mother  of  God ! 

Most  people  have  heard  vaguely  of  the  so-called 
Kulturkampf,  which  followed  so  closely  on  the 
heels  of  the  Imperial  coronation  at  Versailles  as 
to  appear  almost  a  part  of  it.  This  was  a  three- 
cornered  war,  in  which  Pius  attacked  not  merely 
the  Lutheran  heretics  embodied  in  Wilhelm,  but 
those  German  Catholics  who  deprecated  the  ex- 
aggeration of  papal  autocracy.  During  the  sum- 
mer of  the  Franco-German  War  Pius  collected  in 
Rome  some  seven  hundred  theologians  whom 
he  crowded  into  a  building  famed  for  its  bad 
acoustic  properties.  The  summer  was  exception- 
ally hot  and  in  1870  the  Holy  City  was  conspicu- 
ous as  a  breeder  of  disease.  The  final  vote  was 
taken  on  July  i8th,  almost  coinciding  with  the 
opening  of  the  war  by  Eugenie  against  heretical 
Wilhelm.  The  council  had  commenced  with  754 
delegates,  but  only  534  answered  to  their  names 
at  the  deciding  roll-call.  Here  was  a  defection  of 
two  hundred,  who  under  various  pretexts  found  it 


156      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

more  convenient  to  return  home  on  the  plea  of 
health  than  record  themselves  in  opposition  to  a 
measure  which  their  Pope  warmly  advocated.  Of 
those  whose  opinions  are  thus  in  doubt  we  must 
exclude  seventeen  who  died  during  the  discussion 
— they  were  no  doubt  envied  by  many!  If  we 
seek  to  analyse  the  vote  by  which  infallibility 
was  added  to  the  Pope's  many  other  titles,  we  find 
that  of  the  three  hundred  and  sixty-two  (362) 
bishops  who  voted  for  Pius,  170  were  Italians; 
and  of  these  170,  143  came  from  the  papal  states 
alone.  It  was  well  for  Pius  that  his  council  hap- 
pened in  a  peculiarly  hot  summer,  of  a  peculiarly 
unhealthy  city,  on  seats  from  which  it  was  difficult 
to  hear  anything  that  was  said.  Had  the  debates 
been  dragged  on  for  a  few  weeks  longer,  the  entry 
of  the  Italian  army  (September  2Oth)  would  have 
made  a  wholesome  diversion,  especially  for  the 
many  who  might  have  taken  courage  when  they 
realized  that  free  and  united  Italy  was  about  to 
absorb  all  the  temporal  kingdom  hitherto  claimed 
by  the  popes.  We  must  consider  also  that  in 
the  majority  of  this  infallibility  council  or  con- 
vention were  one  hundred  apostolic  vicars  depend- 
ent on  the  Pope  for  preferment,  and  many  heads 
of  religious  orders,  to  say  nothing  of  archbishops 
and  cardinals  who  were  more  popish  than  the 


Infallibility  157 

Pope.  The  minority  who  dared  to  oppose  the 
proposed  papal  claim  to  infallibility  found  them- 
selves in  a  council  where  papal  influence  was  pre- 
ordained if  not  prearranged;  and  even  had  this 
not  been  the  case  the  conditions  of  debate  were 
intolerable  save  to  those  who  clamoured  only  for 
a  show  of  hands.  Of  the  minority,  fifty-three 
united  in  a  formal  protest ;  of  whom  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  twenty- two,  even  then,  were  French; 
and  twenty-one  German,  Austrian,  or  Hungarian. 
These  returned  to  their  several  homes  before  the 
final  vote,  as  did  most  of  the  thoughtful  minority. 

And  thus  was  achieved  the  crowning  earthly 
triumph  of  Pius  IX.  While  his  most  Catholic 
Empress  Eugenie  was  fanatically  urging  her  hus- 
band on  in  his  crusade  against  the  northern  here- 
tics, her  beloved  Pope,  confident  of  his  powers  and 
with  infinite  faith  in  the  credulity  of  his  illiterate 
millions,  framed  a  decree  of  infallibility  that  has 
divided  pious  Catholics  as  nothing  before  since 
the  days  of  Martin  Luther. 

But  let  us  digress  one  moment  on  the  Syllabus, 
so  called. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

The  Syllabus  of  1864  and  its  Effect  on  Wilhelm  I.— 

A  Drawn  Battle  between  Infallibility  and 

Invincibility 

WILHELM  was  no  less  an  autocrat  than  Pius 
IX.  in  matters  theological;  the  main  dif- 
ference being  that  the  Prussian  kept  within  the 
boundaries  fixed  by  the  Treaty  of  Frankfort  where- 
as the  Roman  claimed  as  much  sovereignty  in 
Germany  as  in  China,  Peru,  or  the  papal  states. 
Wilhelm  ruled  his  Lutheran  clergy  after  the  man- 
ner of  an  enlightened  and  frequently  benevolent 
despot.  He  saw  to  it  that  they  all  received  an 
excellent  education;  for  to  him  it  was  the  school- 
master that  made  his  army  invincible.  But  school- 
master and  clergyman,  administrator  and  soldier, 
all  equally  felt  the  encircling  pressure  of  an  all 
highest  power  that  said  to  them:  "  Your  way  must 
be  my  way  or  woe  be  to  you!" 

And  Prussia  in  general  accepted  that  way  as 
the  best  one  for  them;  for  it  was  the  way  of  the 

158 


German  Catholics  159 

soldier  and  all  other  ways  led  to  discussion  and 
dissension,  riot  and  revolution.  For  these  reasons 
Wilhelm  took  no  interest  in  the  various  efforts 
of  his  German  Catholics  to  found  independent 
congregations.  He  could  understand  an  autocrat 
Pope  or  an  autocrat  Czar  of  the  Greek  Church  or 
a  Grand  Lama  of  Tibet,  but  he  saw  only  political 
and  social  chaos  in  a  multitude  of  independent 
religions — all  claiming  to  be  Christian,  all  claim- 
ing the  right  of  conscience,  and  all  indulging  in 
the  dangerous  privilege  of  preaching  a  gospel  that 
had  little  in  common  with  views  of  a  Berlin  police- 
man— still  less  with  those  of  a  Roman  Pope. 

Had  the  Hohenzollerns  shown  half  the  interest 
in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  Prussia  that  they  did  in 
the  casting  of  cannon  or  the  construction  of  rail- 
ways, there  would  today  be  in  Germany  as  in 
France,  a  strong  national  church,  loyal  to  the 
government,  yet  free  to  develop  along  lines  of 
modern  ideals.  There  was  a  wholesome  stir  in 
Germany  when  the  Roman  Bishop  of  Treves 
(1844)  exploited  for  gain  the  alleged  seamless  coat 
of  our  Saviour.  The  scandal  was  so  great  that 
many  Catholics  protested  and  founded  independ- 
ent congregations;  professing  the  faith  of  their 
fathers,  but  rejecting  the  new  papal  abuses.  The 
Prussian  Government  feared  that  these  dissenting 


i6o      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

communities  might  be  nurseries  of  liberal  ideas, 
particularly  after  the  Revolution  (1848);  and, 
while  they  did  not  apply  the  rack  and  stake  to 
these  protesting  Catholics  (AUkatholik),  the  police 
placed  so  many  obstructions  in  their  way  that 
they  had  but  a  slow  and  feeble  growth.  The 
movement  received  a  new  impulse  by  the  infalli- 
bility decree  and  is  destined  to  develop  into  na- 
tional proportions  by  reason  of  the  Great  War 
that  has  witnessed  a  Pope,  a  Sultan,  and  Kaiser 
leagued  amicably  for  the  suppression  of  democracy 
throughout  the  world. 

The  scandal  produced  by  the  commercial  exploita- 
tion of  the  Treves  coat  was  perhaps  heightened 
by  the  existence  of  a  French  rival  at  Argen- 
teuil  near  Versailles.  Pious  legend  pretended 
that  this  one  had  been  worked  by  the  Virgin 
Mary's  own  hands  and  had  in  consequence  per- 
formed miracles  innumerable.  The  mere  fact  of 
there  being  two  seamless  coats  operating  within 
contiguous  territory  and  each  certified  apostoli- 
cally  as  genuine  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a 
serious  objection  in  the  eyes  of  the  devout — least 
of  all  to  Gregory  XVI.,  who  preceded  Pius  IX. 
in  the  pontifical  office. 

But  let  us  return  to  that  strange  Syllabus  (1864). 
It  is  a  word  of  Greek  origin  used  by  the  Vatican 


Holy  Coat  of  Treves          161 

to  mean  a  collection  or  recapitulation  of  those 
papal  commandments  which  an  orthodox  Roman 
Catholic  must  believe  and  practise  and  fight  for 
with  mouth  or  musket;  otherwise  he  will  incur 
excommunication  in  this  world  and,  in  the  next, 
endless  torment.  These  commandments  are  eight 
in  number  and  they  are  in  full  force  today  in 
every  Roman  Catholic  church  throughout  this 
land  of  free  schools. 

In  1 864  America  was  in  the  agonies  of  her  great 
Civil  War  and  Europe  was  more  interested  in 
Wilhelm's  rape  of  Denmark  than  in  pronuncia- 
mentos  from  Rome.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  distrac- 
tions, so  violent  was  the  effect  that  in  such  Catholic 
countries  as  Austria,  France,  Portugal,  and  Italy, 
the  governments  forbade  its  official  publication. 
In  Naples  it  was  burned  by  the  hangman.  Yet  it 
was  merely  a  circular  letter  of  a  Roman  pope  to 
a  few  hundred  bishops  of  his  Church  telling  them 
what  they  must  believe  and  what  abjure. 

The  eightieth  one  perhaps  covers  ground  enough 
to  spare  us  further  discussion  of  this  curious  docu- 
ment for  in  it  the  Pontiff  states  that  the  good 
Romanist  must  hold  himself  aloof  from  so-called 
liberal  ideas,  progress,  and  modern  civilization. 
This  was  Rome's  reply  to  the  waves  of  religious 
inquiry  that  had  been  started  twenty  years  before 


1 62      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

at  the  time  of  the  Holy  Coat  scandal.  The  imme- 
diate provocation  had  been  a  conference  of  Catho- 
lic bishops  who  had  ventured  to  discuss  at  Malines 
(in  Belgium)  whether  it  was  not  possible  for  good 
Catholics  to  be  also  good  citizens  and  march 
harmoniously  with  modern  society.  The  answer 
of  the  Pope  was  a  flat  NO! — and  moreover  he  left 
little  room  for  doubt  on  any  material  point.  There 
is  scarcely  any  institution  or  practice  which  we 
regard  as  essential  to  civil  liberty  or  self-govern- 
ment that  is  not  condemned  by  the  Syllabus.  To 
summarize  briefly: 

God  having  revealed  all  things  to  His  Church, 
there  can  be  no  progress  made  by  human  reason 
— miracles  are  the  safer  guide.  Natural  philo- 
sophy is  but  a  snare  unless  linked  with  the  super- 
natural. No  man  should  be  allowed  to  select  for 
himself  in  matters  of  religion — his  reason  is  but  a 
poor  guide.  All  forms  of  socialism,  communism, 
secret  societies,  Bible  societies,  liberal  societies, 
— they  are  all  moral  pests  and  must  be  eradicated. 
The  Church  has  her  rights  from  Heaven  and 
these  make  her  independent  of  human  laws.  No 
state  must  therefore  presume  to  limit  the  powers 
of  the  Church.  The  priest  must  not  ask  permis- 
sion of  any  state  official — he  needs  not  the  assent 
of  any  civil  authority.  The  Church  is  justified 


Holy  Coat  of  Treves          163 

in  using  force  when  her  pretensions  are  denied. 
Priests  are  not  subject  to  the  state — they  must  not 
be  called  to  do  military  service.  The  laws  of  a 
country  cannot  be  regarded  as  more  important 
than  those  sanctioned  by  a  Pope.  No  state  may 
in  any  way  interfere  with  the  utterances  of  the 
Catholic  priesthood.  Public  schools  should  be 
under  the  control  of  the  priests  and  indeed  higher 
education  should  not  be  permitted  unless  in  har- 
mony with  papal  doctrines.  There  should  be  no 
separation  of  Church  and  State.  The  state  has 
no  right  to  grant  a  divorce  and  no  marriage  is 
valid  unless  performed  by  a  priest — the  civil  power 
has  no  right  to  declare  a  marriage  valid.  The 
Roman  Catholic  faith  should  be  made  the  state 
religion  everywhere  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other. 
It  is  wrong  for  Catholic  states  to  permit  Protest- 
ants to  exercise  their  faith;  this  alleged  tolerance 
enables  heretics  to  openly  discuss  religion  and 
thus  to  disturb  the  minds  of  Catholics;  the  result 
of  such  tolerance  is  to  corrupt  the  spirit  and  finally 
produce  indifference. 

If  now  there  is  any  truth  dear  to  a  free  people 
that  is  not  condemned  in  this  fulmination  of 
1864,  let  me  refer  the  curious  to  any  non-Roman 
library  where  he  may  peruse  the  unexpurgated 
text  in  the  original  Latin  or  its  many  translations. 


1 64      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

We  of  the  self-governing  British  tradition  smiled 
at  the  Syllabus  as  did  the  lawmakers  of  Westmin- 
ster, Ottawa,  and  Melbourne.  We  are  of  the  sub- 
lime conceit  that  time  and  a  dose  of  democracy 
can  cure  every  complaint — for  we  are  children 
in  theological  statecraft. 

But  Wilhelm  had  a  different  theory  of  man; 
and  when  Bismarck  pointed  out  to  him  that  there 
were  Germans — nay  Prussians — who  might  cease 
to  be  subject  to  his  will  the  moment  they  gradu- 
ated from  a  Roman  Catholic  seminary,  then  were 
heard  rumblings  of  Thor  and  Wotan  defying  the 
apostolic  Monsignori  to  do  their  worst. 

The  Syllabus  of  1864  was  merely  the  round 
writing  of  a  dean  in  a  college  of  bishops.  It  was 
received  by  the  majority  of  Catholics  in  obsequious 
resignation,  for  the  majority  knows  not  how  to 
think  or  has  learned  that  thinking  is  more  danger- 
ous than  silence.  The  minority  of  patriotic  and 
farsighted  priests  protested,  not  at  the  opinion 
of  their  chief  but  at  the  mistake  of  making  them 
public  in  so  uncompromising  a  form. 

There  are  those  whom  opposition  sobers.  Pius 
was  not  of  these.  On  the  contrary  the  almost 
unanimous  protest  of  those  whose  characters  he 
should  have  respected  decided  him  to  make 
the  Syllabus  more  odious.  In  consequence,  the 


The  Pope's  Challenge  Accepted  165 

CEcumenical  Council  (so-called)  met  in  Rome;  the 
substance  of  the  Syllabus  was  adopted  and  its 
author  raised  to  the  rank  of  an  infallible. 

CEcumenical  is  the  name  given  to  this  council 
by  the  Vatican,  but  it  was  so  only  in  name,  for 
its  members  were  of  the  Roman  Catholic  sect 
alone;  none  came  from  the  great  Eastern  Orthodox 
Church,  whose  popes  in  Greece,  Rumania,  Bulga- 
ria, and  throughout  the  vast  Russian  Empire,  claim 
for  the  throne  of  Constantine  a  sanctity  in  apos- 
tolic succession  fully  equal  if  not  superior  to  that 
which  any  Roman  bishop  can  maintain.  We 
might  go  even  further  and  allege  that  this  council 
of  1870  did  not  represent  the  Roman  Catholic 
people  who  in  primitive  times  had  a  voice  in  the 
selection  of  their  spiritual  chiefs. 

In  Germany  Bismarck  lost  no  time  in  accepting 
the  Pope's  challenge.  He  called  upon  the  new 
Reichstag  for  the  necessary  laws  and  soon  there- 
after (1873)  word  was  sent  to  his  theocratic  majesty 
of  Rome  that  he  could  no  longer  do  business  in 
Germany  unless  he  swallowed  the  Syllabus  hoof 
and  hides,  so  far  as  Catholics  in  the  Fatherland 
were  concerned;  and  there  were  many  millions 
in  Bavaria,  the  Rhine,  and  Polish  provinces.  Wil- 
helm  the  Invincible  and  Pius  the  Infallible  locked 
horns  over  the  Syllabus  for  a  decade.  In  the  end 


1 66      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Pius  discovered  that  Catholic  propaganda  can  be 
conducted  in  a  democracy  far  more  easily  than  in 
a  land  governed  on  his  own  principles — perhaps 
he  was  consoled  for  his  failures  on  the  Rhine  by 
successes  on  the  Hudson,  to  say  nothing  of  Eng- 
land and  her  colonies.  Bismarck  did  for  Germany 
what  we  have  not  yet  dared  do  here.  He  insisted 
that  every  priest,  no  matter  what  his  church, 
must  recognize  the  law  and  the  flag  of  the  govern- 
ment under  which  he  lives;  all  corporations,  re- 
ligious, or  lay,  must  be  under  government  control 
or  inspection;  no  alien  sovereign,  pope,  khalif,  or 
lama,  shall  issue  orders  within  our  borders — and 
much  to  the  same  effect.  Bismarck  was  right  in 
principle,  but  brutal  in  his  methods.  He  merely 
anticipated  the  laws  which  the  French  Republic 
tvas  compelled  (1894)  to  adopt  in  order  to  protect 
herself  from  Jesuit  education  in  her  schools  and 
papal  propaganda  from  the ,  pulpit.  But  where 
France  after  a  wholesome  internal  struggle  com- 
pletely vindicated  her  right  to  a  national  and 
patriotic  church,  Prussia  had  to  compromise, 
because  she  was  an  autocracy;  because  her  Pro- 
testants had  been  drilled  into  mere  machines; 
because  all  the  elements  of  free  congregational 
worship  had  been  suppressed  and  finally  because 
the  bulk  of  German  Catholics  had  not  in  the  past 


The  Pope's  Challenge  Accepted  167 

learned  to  expect  from  Berlin  any  more  political 
tolerance  than  from  the  Vatican.  Neither  Pius 
IX.  nor  Wilhelm  gained  much  by  the  Kulturkampf 
— yet  the  world  was  the  better  for  a  struggle  in 
which,  if  infallibility  proved  inffectual,  the  same 
could  be  said  of  that  invincibility  which  for  the 
first  time  in  Wilhelm's  reign  ceased  to  work  as  in 
former  wars. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

The  Abduction  of  Edgar  Mortara — Activity  of  Pius 
IX.  in  America  and  England 

"\  X  7E  must  regretfully  admit  that  the  doings  of 
despots,  theocrats,  and  conquerors  interest 
the  human  kind  vastly  more  than  the  debates  of 
legislative  reformers  or  the  report  of  a  budget 
commission.  Thousands  will  read  of  a  Cromwell, 
a  Gustavus  Adolphus,  or  a  Napoleon  to  one  who 
would  care  for  the  Lives  of  the  Lord  Chancellors. 
Let  us  then,  before  we  dismiss  political  theocracy 
entirely  from  this  little  study  of  two  Wilhelms, 
consider  the  Pope  Pius  as  a  force  in  aid  of  militar- 
ism in  Germany.  The  religious  war  inaugurated 
by  the  Syllabus  of  1864  and  inflamed  by  the  edict 
of  infallibility  in  1870  ended  only  with  the  death 
of  its  author  at  the  age  of  eighty-five.  The  next 
pope  seized  the  first  opportunity  of  meeting  Wil- 
helm  half-way,  and  between  them  it  was  concluded 
that  their  common  enemy  was  the  growing  menace 
of  democracy  or  socialism;  and  that,  for  the  pre- 
168 


Peace  with  Rome  169 

sent  at  least,  they  should  lay  aside  the  quarrel 
over  things  theological  in  order  to  first  guarantee 
the  stability  each  of  his  own  throne. 

Prussian  and  papal  autocracy  between  1848 
and  1918  is  doubly  interesting  if  we  recall  that  its 
growth  was  an  appeal  to  force  on  the  one  side  and 
illiteracy  or  emotional  hysteria  on  the  other.  Also 
note  that  the  recrudescence  of  papal  pretension 
was  never  more  conspicuous  than  in  those  years 
when  modern  science  was  raising  new  hope  for  op- 
pressed humanity  and  when  the  names  of  Cobden 
and  Bright,  Huxley  and  Darwin,  Dickens  and 
Thackeray,  David  Livingstone  and  Abraham  Lin- 
coln appeared  to  symbolize  a  new  world  in  which 
free  schools  and  free  speech  would  banish  from 
the  world  the  last  lingering  remnants  of  slavery 
— physical  or  spiritual. 

Pius  IX.  commenced  his  reign  (1846)  amid 
popular  plaudits,  but  when  Mazzini  proclaimed 
the  republic  under  his  very  Vatican,  and  upset 
his  rule  in  the  papal  states,  he  escaped  in  disguise 
as  did  many  other  autocrats  of  that  day  and  re- 
turned only  when  the  bayonets  of  a  very  Catholic 
French  Government  gave  their  protection,  which 
was  in  1849. 

Next  year  he  re-established  a  papal  hierarchy 
in  the  Protestant  land  of  Queen  Victoria;  and 


i?°      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

thus  gave  official  notice  to  his  faithful  that  the 
British  Empire  should  henceforth  be  regarded 
as  a  field  for  their  missionary  enterprise.  It  may 
be  noted  in  parenthesis  that  this  Anglican  conces- 
sion, so  far  from  earning  the  gratitude  of  the 
papacy  or  conciliating  Catholic  Ireland  has  failed 
conspicuously  in  both  respects. 

Next  year  Spain  agreed  that  only  the  Catho- 
lic religion  should  be  recognized;  and  similar  tri- 
umphs were  scored  throughout  South  and  Central 
American  states.  In  1855  Franz  Josef  of  Austria 
handed  over  his  educational  institutions  to  Jesuit 
control — a  triumph  for  the  papacy  but  a  disaster 
for  her  dupe  on  the  Danube. 

In  my  youth  the  free  press  of  both  continents 
voiced  an  indignant  protest  over  the  kidnapping 
(1858)  by  priests  of  a  child  belonging  to  a  Jewish 
family  in  Bologna.  The  church  of  course  claimed 
that  it  was  doing  a  pious  (if  not  a  legal)  act  by 
abducting  this  burning  brand  from  a  Hebrew 
flame;  but  the  parents  thought  otherwise  and 
loudly  clamoured  for  the  return  of  their  offspring. 
Pius,  however,  saw  no  good  reason  for  depriving 
the  true  Church  of  another  convert;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  was  delighted  to  learn  of  a  Jew  child 
being  baptized;  and,  when  claims  were  pressed 
by  legal  means,  he  simply  replied  that  these  were 


Edgar  Mortara 

matters  of  spiritual  concern  and  therefore  beyond 
the  jurisdiction  of  temporal  judges  and  sheriffs. 
In  Chinese  ports,  I  found  that  the  baptizing  of 
foundlings  was  a  favourite,  because  inexpensive, 
method  of  swelling  the  list  of  alleged  conversions 
from  Buddhism  to  Christianity;  but  as  these 
foundlings  were  gathered  mainly  from  city  slums 
or  sailor  resorts  there  were  few  complaints  on  the 
score  of  abduction.  Yet  even  in  the  Far  East 
there  are  perpetual  repetitions  of  this  same  tale; 
and,  when  a  mission  station  is  raided  by  the  mob, 
it  is  often  done  because  the  people  believe  that 
some  child  has  been  abducted  as  was  little  Edgar 
Mortara  of  Bologna. 

England,  France,  Prussia,  each  in  turn  made 
representations  to  Pius,  who  only  shrugged  his 
shoulders  and  smilingly  replied:  "What  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it?"  In  Austria  the  press  was 
forbidden  to  speak  of  the  matter  in  any  form, 
and  good  Catholics  defended  this  rape  by  claiming 
that  it  was  sanctioned  by  laws  of  long  ago.  The 
Jewish  family  attempted  to  arrest  the  Roman 
Catholic  nurse  who  had  conspired  with  the  priests 
in  this  abduction,  but  she  also  had  been  put  under 
safe-keeping  in  a  convent,  and  no  one  knew  her 
whereabouts  save  her  clerical  keepers.  Mean- 
while little  Edgar  grew  to  be  a  lad  of  twelve 


Prussianism  and  Pacifism 


knowing  nothing  but  Roman  ritual,  and  the  Pope 
then  offered  to  restore  him  to  his  parents  if  they 
would  abjure  their  faith!  Luckily  the  year  1870 
intervened  and  with  it  was  swept  away  all  papal 
jurisdiction  in  matters  temporal,  and  so  ends 
for  us  this  remarkable  case  of  abduction. 

The  year  of  papal  infallibility  saw  the  most 
learned  and  the  most  courageous  of  the  Roman 
clergy  protest  against  a  policy  in  Rome  which 
they  regarded  as  unwise  —  not  to  say  illegal  — 
from  a  Catholic  point  of  view.  Doellinger  in 
Bavaria  and  Hyacinthe  Loyson  in  Paris  cheerfully 
faced  excommunication  and  helped  to  found  free 
churches  that  were  Catholic  and  Episcopal,  yet 
free  from  the  many  innovations  that  had  provoked 
the  reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the 
scepticism  of  the  nineteenth.  In  Bohemia,  Hun- 
gary, Austria,  Prussia,  Italy,  and  more  particularly 
in  Switzerland,  Catholics  broke  away  from  papal 
control  and  sought  religious  comfort  in  churches 
more  consonant  with  the  simplicity  of  apostolic 
times.  In  America  the  movement  has  taken  firm 
root,  especially  amongst  those  of  Slav  and  Latin 
blood  whose  compatriots  have  been  fighting  for 
freedom  in  this  great  war  whilst  Catholic  Irish 
have  invited  the  common  enemy  to  land  in  their 
midst,  capture  Dublin,  and  establish  Home  Rule 


Home  Rule  173 

by  the  aid  of  Prussian  bayonets.  The  people  of 
Italy,  Bohemia,  Poland,  and  Croatia  do  not  relish 
a  religion,  many  of  whose  most  important  priests 
appear  to  be  inspired  more  by  anti-English  fervour 
than  zeal  for  liberty.  The  Irish  church  in  New 
York  has  been  conspicuously  hostile  to  the  institu- 
tions most  necessary  to  a  free  people;  and  never 
more  so  than  after  the  Syllabus  and  Infallibility 
Council  of  Pius  IX.  This  church  today  makes  in 
free  America  the  same  pretensions  that  provoked 
the  secession  of  her  ablest  prelates  in  1870.  Rome 
has  chosen  America  for  her  next  battle  ground,  and 
here  she  has  absorbed  much  land  on  which  she 
has  built  many  so-called  religious  houses  that  are 
exempt  from  taxation  and  governed  by  laws  made 
in  a  foreign  country  and  by  priests  who  owe  alle- 
giance primarily  to  a  foreign  autocrat.  Had  Edgar 
Mortara  or  his  abductors  been  spirited  away  to 
any  one  of  the  many  asylums  conducted  by  the 
Roman  Church  in  America,  would  he  have  been 
any  less  closely  and  securely  guarded  than  in  the 
papal  states  of  Pius? 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

Bismarck's  Persecution  of  Count  Arnim  and  George 
von  Bunsen 

\  A  7ILHELM  and  Bismarck  were  so  much  of 
*  *  one  flesh  between  1862  and  1888,  the 
years  of  their  partnership,  that  we  may  use  these 
names  almost  as  interchangeable.  The  Emperor 
was  perhaps  happy  that  he  had  in  his  chancellor 
one  who  never  hesitated  at  any  methods  however 
crude  when  it  was  question  of  removing  or  crush- 
ing an  inconvenient  opponent.  The  Kaiser  con- 
sented to  this  brutality  or  it  could  not  have  been 
exercised;  but  the  people  at  large  adored  their 
venerable  Wilhelm  while  they  trembled  at  the 
name  of  his  chief  minister. 

Bismarck's  brutality  was  applauded  by  the  bulk 
of  Germany  so  long  as  his  victims  were  French- 
men. But  after  the  Treaty  of  Frankfort  (1871) 
that  same  brutality  so  crushingly  inflicted  upon 
Favre  and  Thiers  now  found  a  scope  even  more 
free  within  the  borders  of  the  new  Fatherland. 

174 


Qualities  of  Count  Arnim      i?5 

His  first  conspicuous  victim  was  a  German 
remarkable  for  liberal  sentiment  and  statesman- 
like vision;  worthy  descendant  of  an  illustrious 
line,  and  so  successful  in  affairs  demanding  firm- 
ness and  tact  combined,  that  Wilhelm  selected 
him  as  the  first  to  inaugurate  diplomatic  relations 
between  his  new  Empire  and  the  Republic  of 
France.  Diplomacy  has  ever  been  the  weakest 
feature  of  a  government  which  employs  force  as 
its  main  weapon;  and  therefore  is  it  the  more 
notable  that  in  such  a  juncture  Prussia  should 
have  produced  an  ambassador  combining  high 
breeding,  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  tactful 
sympathy.  I  refer  to  Count  Harry  Arnim.  Of 
course  Paris  was  pleased.  After  a  Bismarck, 
what  Prussian  would  not  have  been  acceptable! 
But  Arnim  had  qualities  which  the  Iron  Chancel- 
lor could  not  forgive;  he  enjoyed  the  favour  of 
his  Emperor;  he  was  becoming  friendly  to  French- 
men and  he  was  even  presuming  to  offer  advice  to 
a  Bismarck!  Unfortunately  he  gave  good  advice; 
and  this  was  unpardonable.  For  in  spite  of  popu- 
lar legend,  it  is  mainly  the  soldier  who  thinks  of 
Bismarck  as  the  great  diplomat;  while  the  great 
ambassadors  politely  refer  to  the  Iron  Chancellor 
as  an  excellent  soldier.  If  we  needed  proof  it 
might  be  found  in  the  fact  that  so  long  as  he 


1 76      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

negotiated  with  superior  battalions  at  his  back,  his 
diplomacy  was  proportionally  successful,  but  after 
the  Treaty  of  Frankfort  he  entered  upon  a  period 
of  mortifying  compromises  in  spite  of  methods  no 
less  brutal. 

Arnim  had  spent  many  years  in  Rome  as  agent 
of  his  King  and  wisely  warned  Bismarck  in  time 
regarding  the  trouble  which  Pius  was  brewing  by 
his  proposed  oecumenical  council.  He  urged  that 
Prussia  be  represented  in  these  deliberations.  He 
also  foresaw  the  coming  war  between  autocracy 
and  theocracy  and  urged  Bismarck  to  facilitate 
the  forming  of  Catholic  congregations,  indepen- 
dent of  papal  control  in  the  spirit  of  Ronge  and 
Doellinger.  But  Bismarck  rejected  all  this  as 
an  impertinence,  though  he  may  have  had  secret 
regret  when  on  the  death  of  Pius  IX.  (1878)  he 
looked  upon  the  scars  which  that  so-called  Kultur- 
kampf  had  left  upon  his  sword.  We  may  never 
know  the  true  reasons  that  urged  Bismarck  to 
disgrace  Arnim  but  we  shall  not  be  far  out  if  we 
realize  that,  next  to  brutality,  the  Chancellor's 
most  conspicuous  quality  was  jealousy,  touching 
his  prerogatives.  In  Arnim  he  detected  a  possible 
rival,  if  not  successor;  and,  consequently  his  de- 
struction was  planned  and  swiftly  consummated. 
It  is  always  easy  for  a  Bismarck  to  find  the  pretext 


Dismissal  of  Arnim  177 

when  a  victim  is  to  be  sacrificed;  and  in  this  case 
the  loose  charge  of  treason  was  applied  much  as 
the  correspondingly  indefinite  cry  of  heresy  sufficed 
to  destroy  an  inconvenient  individual  during  the 
heyday  of  the  Inquisition. 

In  1874  Arnim  was  suddenly  dismissed  from 
his  post  in  Paris  and  made  the  object  of  a  criminal 
prosecution,  which  could  not  end  well  for  the 
criminal,  since  Bismarck  made  the  charge.  So 
Arnim  was  disgraced,  and  condemned  to  three 
months  in  jail.  The  people  knew  nothing  of  the 
merits  in  this  case,  for,  of  course,  the  Chancellor 
flooded  the  subservient  press  with  articles  making 
out  that  Arnim  had  acted  disloyally  to  his  King 
— even  if  he  had  not  committed  overt  acts  of 
treason.  The  pious  Wilhelm  had  to  choose  be- 
tween Arnim  and  his  masterful  Chancellor  and  of 
course  Arnim  fell.  He  ventured  to  appeal  his 
case  to  a  higher  court,  but  so  far  from  getting  ac- 
quittal, his  term  of  prison  was  increased  from  three 
to  nine  months.  Fortunately  for  himself,  he 
escaped  to  Switzerland  whence  he  published 
anonymously  a  defence  of  his  conduct.  The 
angry  Chancellor  regarded  this  as  more  than 
treason ;  it  needed  a  new  name :  Bismarckbeleidigung; 
and  Arnim  was  promptly  condemned  (in  his 
absence),  to  five  years  of  penal  servitude.  His 


178      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

family  made  repeated  efforts  to  have  him  re- 
habilitated by  a  fair  trial  but  they  did  not  suc- 
ceed until  just  before  his  death  (1881).  He  died  a 
victim  of  Bismarckian  vengeance — his  heart  was 
broken.  Had  he  been  born  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges  he  would  have  smiled  seraphically,  whilst 
receiving  the  lashes  of  a  tyrant,  for  he  would  have 
repeated  the  ineffable  word  that  was  in  the  be- 
ginning of  time;  and  he  would  have  rejoiced  in 
acquiring  merit  for  a  prospective  reincarnation. 
But  not  being  a  Brahmin,  he  cursed  the  brute  who 
lashed  him  whilst  all  good  Yunkers  praised  Bis- 
marck for  making  an  example  that  would  stimulate 
loyalty  in  the  rising  generation  of  diplomatic 
servants. 

The  Arnim  case  was  conducted  on  the  principle 
which  animated  the  Prussians  in  Belgium — Schreck- 
lichkeit  or  "frightfulness."  It  is  the  same  primum 
mobile  that  made  Louis  XIV.  quarter  the  most 
licentious  of  his  dragoons  upon  his  Protestant 
subjects  and  thus  hasten  the  day  when  all  in 
France  would  be  of  one  faith.  Bismarck  succeeded 
in  the  Arnim  case,  if  success  is  measured  by  the 
proportion  of  public  servants  whose  idea  of  duty 
is  to  play  the  flunkey  to  the  one  above  and  be  a 
bully  to  those  below.  It  was  he  who  prepared 
the  chaos  of  present  Germany  by  persecuting  in 


Dragonnade  in  Prussia        179 

his  day  the  small  but  precious  minority  of  learned 
and  courageous  representatives  who  were  slowly 
educating  the  people  to  the  evils  of  socialism  on 
the  one  side  and  the  no  less  menacing  danger  of 
exaggerated  protectionism  and  militarism  on  the 
other. 

Throughout  the  duel  between  Pope  and  Kaiser, 
Bismarck  maintained  himself  in  the  Reichstag 
by  the  support  of  a  liberal  majority  who  resented 
the  idea  of  an  alien  potentate  meddling  with 
German  education.  This  majority  was  equally 
helpful  in  counterbalancing  the  Socialist  vote  which 
was  growing  ominously  in  importance.  Suddenly 
(1879),  however,  the  great  Chancellor  decided  to 
abandon  the  traditional  policy  of  Prussia  in  the 
matter  of  a  very  moderate  tariff,  and  to  inaugurate 
a  commercial  era  of  state  subvention,  centraliza- 
tion, and  protectionism.  This  met  with  opposi- 
tion from  the  wisest  of  those  who  had  hitherto 
been  his  loyal  parliamentary  supporters.  Today 
in  a  Germany  strewn  with  the  wreck  of  autocracy 
and  commercial  militarism  we  should  recall  grate- 
fully such  names  as  Bamberger  and  Lasker,  Rick- 
ert  and  Richter,  Theodor  Barth  and  George  von 
Bunsen.  These  and  many  more  such  worked  for 
ideals  akin  to  those  of  Cobden  and  they  dared  to 
vote  against  Bismarck. 


i8o      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

George  von  Bunsen  was  of  English  mother  and 
also  grandmother  and  his  home  in  Berlin  was  the 
resort  of  all  that  could  make  a  salon.  No  travel- 
ler of  distinction  failed  to  cultivate  his  society, 
and  literary  Germany,  no  less  than  the  world  of 
war  and  diplomacy,  met  under  his  hospitable  roof 
as  on  a  neutral  field.  Bunsen  was  an  intimate  at 
the  palace  of  the  Prussian  Crown  Prince,  and  his 
children  were  playmates  of  the  then  little  princes. 
So  long  as  Bismarckian  brows  did  not  frown  over 
this  happy  household,  Berlin  could  boast  of  at 
least  one  home  where  the  Muses  might  have  walked 
in  without  the  goose  step.  But  that  was  long 
ago.  It  was  too  good  to  last. 

When  Bismarck  changed  his  policy,  however 
violently,  he  expected  all  to  obey  or  else  be  classed 
with  the  "undesirable" — the  Vaterlandslose  gesel- 
len.  Bunsen  remained  a  free-trader  when  Bis- 
marck had  signified  his  wish  that  all  Germans 
declare  for  protection — that  was  crime  enough. 
He  became  now  an  enemy  in  the  Chancellor's 
eyes  whom  it  was  the  duty  of  every  good  subject 
to  shun  socially  and  attack  indirectly.  Officers 
of  the  army  and  navy  were  warned  to  avoid  that 
salon;  and  all  those  who  looked  to  Bismarck  for 
good  or  ill,  whether  professors  of  the  university 
or  diplomatic  agents  of  friendly  countries,  were 


George  von  Bunsen  181 

given  to  understand  that  intimacy  with  George 
von  Bunsen  was  not  the  best  way  of  securing 
friendly  hearing  in  the  bureau  of  foreign  affairs. 
All  took  the  hint ;  and  soon  the  house  of  Bunsen, 
from  being  the  resort  of  what  was  worth  knowing 
in  Berlin,  became  as  one  smitten  with  a  pest,  and 
Bismarck  directed  the  quarantine.  A  few  stran- 
gers and  friends,  conspicuous  for  their  daring  rather 
than  for  hope  of  promotion,  still  called;  but  these 
emphasized  rather  than  redeemed  the  solitude 
which  a  tyrant  had  created.  The  political  party 
to  which  he  belonged  was  persecuted  by  police 
means ;  proprietors  of  assembly-rooms  were  warned 
against  permitting  on  their  premises  a  meeting 
of  men  whom  the  great  Chancellor  had  branded 
as  disloyal.  Bunsen  himself  was  haled  into  court 
and  harried  by  the  public  prosecutor  on  account 
of  an  alleged  speech  to  his  parliamentary  electors. 
The  pretext  was  trifling — not  greater  than  in  the 
Arnim  case — but  the  warning  was  meant  to  fright- 
en from  public  life  the  few  remaining  Germans 
who  had  thought  for  themselves;  who  had  felt 
the  whiff  of  free  parliamentary  currents  from 
Westminster;  who  had  seen  the  great  world  and 
who  fondly  imagined  that  they  could  with  impu- 
nity preach  constitutional  liberty  in  the  land  of 
the  Wilhelms.  Bunsen  had  heavy  law  costs ;  and, 


1 82      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

whilst  on  appeal  the  case  against  him  was  lost 
through  a  legal  technicality,  he  knew  that  per- 
sistent prosecution  at  government  hands  would 
ruin  him  financially,  however  the  verdict  might 
ensue;  and  between  that  and  the  wreck  of  his 
position  in  the  world  of  society,  this  new  victim 
of  Bismarckbeleidigung  found  himself  a  man  without 
a  country,  exiled  to  a  political  desert  created  for 
him  by  a  government  to  which  he  had  dedicated 
the  best  years  of  his  life,  and  his  fortune  into  the 
bargain.  A  coarser  man  would  have  turned 
anarchist  or  emigrated;  but  Bunsen  was  the 
father  of  a  large  family,  and  loved  his  country 
loyally  to  the  very  end — when  he,  like  Arnim. 
died  of  a  broken  heart. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

Professor   Geffken — Another   Victim   of   Bismarck — 

German  Colonial   Empire  the   Gift  of  a   Paci- 

fistic  and  pro-German  Government  in  England 

\  \  7HILE  no  historical  student  would  seek  to 
eliminate  from  Germany  the  part  played 
by  Bismarck,  we  must  remind  the  reader  that 
few  men  in  high  office  have  exercised  more  freely 
their  power  to  villify  an  opponent  and  correspond- 
ingly exalt  their  own  merit.  The  men  whom 
Bismarck  persecuted  most  fiercely  corresponded 
to  those  whom  the  Roman  Hierarchy  attacked; 
they  were  almost  always  men  of  learning,  of  travel, 
of  social  position,  of  independent  character,  and 
of  lofty  patriotism.  Today  we  have  difficulty  in 
measuring  the  loss  which  Germany  has  sustained 
through  Bismarckian  persecution.  In  England  or 
America  many  a  public  man  has  been  in  opposition 
to  the  government  yet  survived,  or  even  loomed 
larger  as  the  champion  of  a  minority.  But  in 
the  Berlin  of  my  experience,  to  be  politically  at 

183 


184      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

variance  with  the  great  Chancellor  was  to  become 
a  social  pariah  in  the  eyes  of  the  court,  the  army, 
and  society,  so  called.  Such  men  as  Virchow  or 
Mommsen,  while  honoured  by  every  learned  body 
the  world  over,  could  not  be  invited  to  any  party 
in  Berlin,  where  aristocracy  was  expected.  It 
mattered  little  that  Barth  and  Richter,  Lasker 
and  Bamberger  were  scholars  of  eminence,  and 
politically  men  of  the  first  rank — they  dropped 
to  the  level  of  undesirables  when  Bismarck  passed 
the  word  that  no  officer  should  be  seen  in  their 
company;  that  to  be  a  loyal  German  one  should 
ostracize  all  such  as  opposed  the  Chancellor.  . 

This  being  the  state  of  servility  to  which  Prus- 
sians had  been  degraded,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  the  families  of  those  who  have  been  martyrs 
of  state  persecution,  so  far  from  praising  the  cour- 
age of  their  injured  kin,  deplore  his  injudicious 
behaviour  and  tremble  lest  vengeance  should  fall 
also  on  others  of  the  family.  In  my  researches 
regarding  the  champions  of  liberty  in  1848,  and 
even  more  so  in  regard  to  Bismarckian  victims, 
I  found  that  the  heirs  at  law  were  interested  less 
in  the  glory  of  their  illustrious  kinsman  than  in 
suppressing  his  very  name  or  at  least  apologizing 
for  the  deeds  which  made  him  dear  to  the  friends 
of  freedom.  From  Robert  Blum  of  '48  to  George 


Professor  Geffken  185 

von  Bunsen  of  '78  the  same  sad  tale  is  true — in 
in  each  case  their  descendants  have  been  concerned 
with  their  own  worldly  success  rather  than  vin- 
dicating the  memory  of  a  martyr.  Robert  Blum 
has  been  mentioned  in  my  German  History;  and 
now  that  his  country  has  at  last  achieved  some  of 
the  freedom  for  which  he  died,  we  may  hope  to 
see  for  him  a  worthy  monument  either  in  Cologne, 
which  was  French  soil  at  the  time  of  his  birth,  or 
in  Frankfort,  which  was  a  free  city  when  it  rang 
with  his  forensic  appeals. 

One  of  my  warm  friends  was  the  eminent  author- 
ity on  constitutional  law,  Professor  Geffken — a 
name  second  to  none  in  the  world  of  juridical 
research  and  constructive  statesmanship.  He  was, 
like  von  Bunsen,  a  man  of  wide  mental  horizon, 
much  travel,  and  ample  private  fortune.  He  also 
was  of  the  number  dear  to  the  late  Emperor  Fred- 
erick and  his  English  wife,  and  to  that  extent  was 
closely  watched  and  cordially  hated  by  Bismarck. 
It  was  he  who  drew  up  for  the  then  Crown  Prince 
the  programme  which  he  published  when  succeed- 
ing (1888)  his  father  on  the  Imperial  throne.  It 
was  a  programme  so  modern  and  liberal  in  spirit, 
so  instinct  with  the  personal  views  of  an  English 
princess  and  so  opposite  to  those  of  Wilhelm 
I.  and  his  court,  that  the  Chancellor  looked 


1 86      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

impatiently  for  the  moment  when  he  might  pun- 
ish the  author.  During  the  lifetime  of  Frederick, 
this  was  not  possible,  but  before  his  widow  had 
completed  her  mourning,  GefTken  was  arrested 
and  put  into  jail  on  the  same  indefinite  charge  of 
high  treason.  Some  strong  men  have  survived 
prison  life,  but  Geffken  was  of  a  constitution  so 
frail  that  he  had,  on  urgent  medical  advice,  retired 
from  active  life  when  barely  more  than  fifty  years 
of  age;  and  his  arrest  came  at  the  age  of  sixty 
when  he  appeared  many  years  older  by  reason  of 
chronic  infirmities.  The  Empress  Frederick  had 
given  him  some  of  her  husband's  diary  with  per- 
mission to  publish  it,  and  this  was  excuse  enough 
for  his  enemy,  who  had  now  become  prime  minister 
to  Wilhelm  II.  He  was  charged  with  having 
forged  the  diary — a  charge  no  less  absurd  than 
malicious.  Bismarck  had  ample  means  of  know- 
ing that  the  diary  was  genuine  and  also  that  it 
was  published  by  authority  of  the  author's  widow. 
But  he  wished  to  strike  with  one  Jove-like  bolt, 
not  merely  so  eminent  a  liberal  as  Geffken,  but 
so  exalted  an  opponent  as  the  daughter  of  an 
English  Queen.  Geffken  was  transparently  inno- 
cent, and  had  to  be  acquitted,  even  by  German 
judges.  But  the  vengeance  was  none  the  less 
complete  and  warningly  dramatic.  The  innocent 


Personal  Vengeance  187 

victim  suffered  in  jail  to  such  an  extent  physically 
and  mentally  that  on  his  release  after  three  months 
he  was  a  broken  man  and  lived  but  a  few  years 
longer,  another  martyr  over  whose  grave  Clio 
carves  the  words  "murdered  by  Bismarck." 

In  this  case  it  was  not  the  least  of  the  Chancel- 
lor's triumphs  that  the  Empress  Frederick  was 
compelled  by  him  to  submit  to  these  affronts  and 
to  feel  that  even  her  own  son  was  a  party  to  her 
humiliation. 

But  a  policy  of  personal  vengeance,  however 
successful  it  may  be  for  the  attainment  of  an  imme- 
diate political  advantage,  rarely  broadens  the  base 
of  enduring  fame  any  more  than  does  Vandalism 
or  Schrecklichkeit  intimidate  a  brave  enemy  in 
war.  Bismarck  bullied  and  blustered  and  rattled 
his  sabre  and  boycotted  and  prosecuted,  but  from 
the  day  of  the  Treaty  of  Frankfort  to  that  of  his 
dismissal  from  office  (1890),  although  many  were 
the  mutilated  victims  of  his  wrath,  his  few  victo- 
ries were  purchased  at  a  price  far  exceeding  their 
intrinsic  value. 

The  Reichstag  had  but  two  Socialists  in  1871; 
but  in  ten  years  they  had  increased  to  twelve; 
and  they  kept  on  increasing  as  fast  as  Bismarck 
attacked  them  by  merely  police  methods.  In  the 
same  ten  years  the  Roman  Catholic  or  Centrist 


1 88      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

party  had  nearly  doubled;  and  thus  even  before 
the  reign  of  Wilhelm  II.,  a  Lutheran  autocrat 
was  balancing  between  yielding  to  a  democratic- 
socialist  majority  or  purchasing  of  the  Pope  his 
parliamentary  support  which,  with  all  its  draw- 
backs, had  at  least  the  merit  of  defending  landed 
property;  and  no  wonder,  for  is  not  the  Roman 
Church  the  world's  leading  landlord? 

And  so  Bismarck  sought  consolation  for  his 
papal  compromises  by  launching  furious  police 
campaigns  against  Socialists;  then  against  foreign 
languages,  notably  French,  Danish,  and  Polish; 
then  he  applied  more  drastic  laws  in  the  provinces 
of  Alsace-Lorraine  and  tried  to  Prussianize  Poland 
and  the  Danish  provinces  by  placing  heavy  bur- 
dens on  all  who  would  not  be  renegades.  But 
the  more  he  bullied  and  persecuted  and  prussified 
the  more  did  the  good  people  of  Metz  and  Strass- 
burg  hate  the  name  of  Hohenzollern ;  and  in 
Thorn  or  Posen  his  success  was  no  better,  for  even 
the  Prussian  officials  were  drawn  by  the  magnet 
of  Polish  beauty;  and  their  offspring  were  lulled 
to  sleep  by  the  pleasant  music  of  a  Slav  lullaby. 

The  ferocity  of  his  chancellor's  crusade  against 
political  heresy  in  the  closing  years  of  Wilhelm 
I.  recalls  painfully  the  persistent  persecution  of 
Protestantism  by  the  Roman  Hierarchy  in  France 


Growing  Expansion  189 

during  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  fall  of 
Bastille.  So  far  from  seeing  that  spiritual  and 
intellectual  forces  are  proof  against  bludgeons  and 
prison  bars,  Bismarck  met  each  of  his  failures  by 
demanding  an  increase  in  severity. 

On  the  field  of  colonial  expansion  he  was  met 
more  than  half-way  by  Queen  Victoria,  whose 
court  and  cabinet  at  that  time  took  so  little 
interest  in  Britain,  beyond  seas,  as  to  raise  the 
suspicion  that  they  almost  deemed  it  good  states- 
manship to  cast  from  them  vast/£ossessions  for 
which  their  more  warlike  ancestors  had  poured 
out  much  treasure,  to  say  nothing  of  blood.  The 
tyrant  who  fails  in  securing  peace  at  home  turns 
usually  to  a  foreign  field  as  a  means  of  distract- 
ing the  popular  interest.  Neither  Wilhelm,  nor 
Moltke,  nor  Bismarck  cared  for  any  territory  that 
could  not  be  overrun  conveniently  by  a  Prussian 
army.  Nor  had  Frederick  the  Great,  much  less 
his  three  successors,  given  the  matter  a  moment's 
thought.  It  was  England  herself  that  was  respon- 
sible; or  rather,  that  part  of  England  which  justi- 
fied the  disgrace  of  Majuba  Hill  and  the  yet  deeper 
one  of  abandoning  Gordon  in  Khartoum.  Each 
of  these  blunders,  if  not  crimes,  had  to  be  repaired 
by  subsequent  sacrifices  enormously  costly  in 
blood  and  money.  Majuba  led  directly  to  the 


190      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

great  Boer  War  and  Gordon's  death  occasioned 
the  later  campaign  up  the  Nile  under  Kitchener. 
Bismarck  originally  discouraged  the  notion  of 
German  colonies,  but  when  he  discovered  that  the 
government  of  Westminster,  so  far  from  offering 
to  fight,  was  actually  giving  them  away  with  their 
compliments,  what  Prussian  could  resist!  And  so 
the  world  rubbed  its  eyes  to  find,  in  a  very  few 
years,  that  Wilhelm  II.  was  to  inherit  not  merely 
the  amplified  Germany  accorded  by  the  Treaty 
of  Frankfort  but  over  a  million  square  miles  of 
colonial  empire  which  not  long  ago  all  the  world 
regarded  as  part  of  the  British  Empire.  Had  the 
Victorian  philanthropists  received  a  large  sum  for 
this  territory  the  commercial  conscience  might 
have  been  partially  consoled;  had  it  been  even 
territory  exclusively  Britain's  to  give  the  case 
might  have  been  less  painful,  but  of  the  million 
square  miles  under  consideration  a  large  piece  in 
South-west  Africa  belonged  of  right  to  the  Cape 
Colony  to  which.it  is  geographically  bound  as  is 
New  Mexico  and  Arizona  to  our  South-west ;  and 
what  Australian  but  loudly  cursed  a  government 
that  gave  to  Germany  an  Island  Empire  on  her 
northern  flanks — New  Guinea,  New  Hebrides— 
a  field  where  for  a  century  English  and  American 
missionaries  had  spread  respect  for  our  language 


German  Colonies 


and  institutions;  to  say  nothing  of  a  large  and 
growing  trade  with  Sydney,  Melbourne,  and  New 
Zealand. 

Wilhelm  I.  became  reconciled  to  this  additional 
empire  when  he  learned  at  what  a  bargain  it  had 
been  secured  and  what  a  vast  field  it  was  likely 
to  be  for  German  enterprise,  and  above  all  for 
coaling  stations. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

Wilhelm  I.   Makes  a  Gentleman's  Agreement  with 

Leo  XIII.  and  Secures  a  Solid  Catholic  Vote 

for  his  Budget 

AX7ILHELM  I.  died  in  1888,  more  than 
*  *  ninety  years  of  age,  and  the  last  ten  years 
of  his  life  were  burdened  by  a  combination  of 
events  which  were  admirably  exploited  by  his 
Chancellor.  Socialism  kept  increasing  with  each 
parliamentary  election;  and  this,  added  to  the 
Catholic  (or  Centre)  party,  formed  so  formidable 
an  opposition  that  many  feared  a  conflict  between 
the  King  and  his  Reichstag,  or  in  other  words 
between  the  army  and  the  people.  The  King 
wanted  an  ever-increasing  army;  he  repudiated 
the  constitutional  clause  by  which  his  Parliament 
voted  the  military  budget  from  year  to  year;  he 
insisted  upon  a  vote  that  should  make  him  master 
of  the  military  chest  for  at  least  seven  years.  The 
representatives  of  the  people  invoked  the  law,  but 
Bismarck  rattled  his  sabre  and  drew  dreadful 

192 


Leo  XIII.  193 

pictures  of  a  revengeful  France  preparing  to  sack 
Berlin — frontiers  that  needed  protection — the  same 
old  story  which  all  have  heard  and  all  forget. 
This  time  the  good  people  of  the  Fatherland  were 
a  bit  weary  of  the  everlasting  bugaboo  and  many 
would  have  advised  their  beloved  Chancellor  to 
take  indefinite  leave  of  absence;  but  just  then 
Pius  died  and  in  his  place  appeared  the  most 
scholarly  and  conciliatory  Jesuit  that  had  ever 
occupied  the  alleged  throne  of  St.  Peter. 

Leo  XIII.  immediately  reversed  the  policy  of 
his  pugnacious  predecessor.  He  abated  none  of 
his  pretension  as  viceroy  in  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
but  he  proved  in  fact  a  warm  friend  to  the 
Lutheran  Kingdom  of  Wilhelm.  The  inner  history 
of  this  unnatural  union  may  be  better  known  when 
the  secrets  of  the  Vatican  are  published  by  the 
side  of  those  in  the  Berlin  foreign  office.  At  this 
point,  in  a  sketch  of  the  two  Wilhelms,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  point  out  to  those  who  have  not 
occupied  themselves  much  with  pontifical  history 
that  Popes  do  not  join  hands  with  Lutherans 
unless  there  is  a  reason.  And  so  the  fortunes  of 
the  Iron  Chancellor  once  more  seemed  pleasing; 
the  Catholic  vote  now  helped  him  against  that  of 
the  Socialists  and  even  more  in  passing  the  budgets 
that  strengthened  Wilhelm  as  a  military  autocrat. 
13 


194      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Had  Leo  XIII.  not  become  Pope  he  would  have 
been  a  notable  figure  in  an  age  conspicuous  for 
scholarly  debate  and  political  agitation.  He  had 
many  of  the  qualities  which  endear  Erasmus  to 
students  of  the  Reformation  and  his  character 
may  be  epitomized  in  the  one  act  of  selecting  Sir 
Thomas  More,  the  author  of  Utopia,  as  worthy 
of  beatification. 

In  every  field  of  science  that  he  entered,  he 
achieved  such  triumph  as  a  Macaulay  might  have 
envied,  whether  in  Latin  verse  or  physics,  chem- 
istry or  theology,  philosophy  or  literature.  He 
owed  all  his  training  to  Jesuit  fathers  and  we  may 
safely  surmise  that  he  mastered  with  ease  all  that 
even  they  had  to  impart,  so  much  so  that  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one  he  had  already  obtained  the 
rank  of  Doctor  of  Theology.  From  now  on  his 
career  was  one  of  pleasant  promotion;  at  thirty- 
three  he  was  diplomatic  representative  of  the 
Vatican  in  Brussels;  at  thirty-six  he  was  an  arch- 
bishop and  ruled  in  Perugia  for  the  next  thirty- 
two  years.  He  was  sixty-eight  when  Pius  died 
and  his  elevation  to  the  Papacy  was  made  the 
easier  to  his  rivals  by  the  reflection  that  so  vener- 
able a  prelate  would,  in  a  short  while,  make  room 
for  a  successor.  But  Leo  XIII. ,  on  the  contrary, 
partook  bountifully  of  the  then  prevalent  mania 


Bismarck  Decorated  by  the  Pope  195 

for  living  long.  It  was  the  age  of  political  and 
military  Nestors  and  why  not  theological  as  well! 
So  Leo  lived  to  be  ninety- three,  at  least  a  score 
more  than  had  been  anticipated  by  his  brother 
prelates  of  the  sacred  college.  He  lived  to  deco- 
rate Bismarck,  the  Lutheran,  with  a  papal  decora- 
tion in  diamonds  usually  reserved  for  those  who 
have  extirpated  heresy  or  at  least  made  them- 
selves odious  to  Protestantism.  He  received  three 
visits  from  Wilhelm  II.  and  before  he  died  (1903) 
may  be  said  to  have  inaugurated  the  policy  which, 
without  sacrificing  any  of  the  theoretical  claims 
of  his  predecessors,  permits  good  Catholics  to 
adopt  modern  methods  if  in  so  doing  they  may 
win  back  heretics  or  increase  the  political  power 
of  the  Papacy.  Leo  XIII.  has  encouraged  his 
Catholics  of  America,  France,  England,  etc.,  to 
take  an  active  political  interest  in  school  matters 
and  thus  to  win  back  for  the  Church  through  the 
ballot  box  what  they  lost  under  Popes  who  showed 
too  plainly  their  theocratic  purposes.  Leo  XIII. 
was  a  master  Jesuit  and  professed  loyalty  to  each 
government  in  turn,  trusting  for  ultimate  success 
to  indirect  and  secret  pressure  exerted  through 
carefully  drilled  and  still  more  carefully  selected 
agents  or  priests.  In  Germany  he  immediately 
made  a  quasi  gentleman's  agreement  with  the 


196      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

enemy  of  Pius ;  and,  whatever  may  have  been  put 
into  writing  or  merely  hinted  at  verbally,  each  of 
the  contracting  parties  felt  that  he  had  scored  a 
victory.  Bismarck  allowed  many  of  the  severest 
paragraphs  to  become  faded  while  Leo,  without 
questioning  the  infallibility  of  his  predecessor, 
managed  to  meet  the  Prussian  ministry  of  Kultur 
more  than  half-way  and  above  all  give  the  King 
what  he  most  prized,  a  solid  Catholic  vote  for 
the  army  and  navy. 

As  to  whether  the  Autocrat  or  the  Theocrat 
gained  most  in  this  deal,  who  can  measure.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  Protestant  Prussian  monarchy 
gained  little,  if  anything,  by  advertising  its 
dependence  on  a  Pope  rather  than  upon  the 
loyalty  of  a  liberally  educated  people.  To  be 
sure  it  was  not  Bismarck  who  did  the  ad- 
vertising; on  the  contrary,  he  was  most  anxious 
to  spread  the  notion  that  German  Catholics 
rallied  spontaneously  to  his  policy  of  heavy  war 
budgets  and  high  tariffs  in  favour  of  Yunker 
landlords. 

As  I  write,  the  last  square  mile  of  colony  has 
passed  from  beneath  Germany's  rule;  but  in 
justice  to  German  Catholics,  we  may  reasonably 
feel  that  in  the  gentleman's  agreement  with  Leo 
XIII.,  the  Lutheran  Kaiser,  as  master  of  one  million 


A  Gentleman's  Agreement     197 

square  miles  of  new  territory  in  many  seas,  pro- 
mised his  holy  colleague  on  the  Tiber  that  he 
would  give  to  Catholic  missionaries  many  and 
valuable  concessions  amongst  his  new  people  of 
black,  brown,  ginger,  copper,  and  yellow  com- 
plexions. This  meant  little,  for  he  was  giving  away 
land  that  did  not  belong  to  him;  and  he  was 
granting  privileges  that  could  be  enjoyed  only  by 
the  aid  of  a  policeman  or  a  punitive  expedition. 
However,  Wilhelm  had  plenty  of  land  and  a  wilder- 
ness of  pagans,  whilst  Leo  had  an  endless  line  of 
missionaries  of  both  sexes  keen  for  martyrdom, 
and  foreign  adventure.  The  Kaiser  insisted  that 
all  native  converts  should  learn  German  and  at 
least  sing  Die  Wacht  am  Rhein;  and  Leo,  in  return, 
secured  the  aid  of  the  German  police  in  scouring 
the  jungle  for  truant  Kaffirs,  Papuans,  or  Kana- 
kas. It  was  an  arrangement  that  sounded  well 
when  dressed  out  by  the  orthodox  writers  of  Berlin 
and  the  Vatican,  but,  in  fact,  it  was  a  missionary 
scheme,  recalling  that  which  Columbus  carried 
with  him  to  the  New  World  and  which  stirred 
the  righteous  indignation  of  Las  Casas.  Had  I 
not  heard  on  the  spot  some  sickening  details  of 
German  colonization  in  various  islands  of  the 
Far  Eastern  Tropics,  I  too  might  have  been  hum- 
bugged by  the  stream  of  articles  favourable  to 


198      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

missionaries  and  the  Prussian  colonial  office — 
mendacious  articles  that  no  German  dared  contra- 
dict or  whose  contradiction  no  German  paper 
dared  print. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

Frederick  the  Noble  and  his  Wife — Some  Personal 
Memories 

\  \  JE  are  now  at  the  year  1888  in  which  the  first 
Wilhelm  died  full  of  honours  at  the  ripe 
age  of  ninety-one,  and  in  which  commenced  the 
reign  of  Wilhelm  II.,  destined  to  end  in  disaster, 
not  to  say  disgrace,  after  only  three  short  decades 
of  dazzling  activity.  These  two  reigns  are  one 
continuous  development  of  autocratic  ideals  dear 
to  the  Junker  or  landed  aristocracy  of  Prussia;  and, 
had  these  ideals  triumphed,  Wilhelm  II.  would 
now  be  receiving  the  homage  of  suppliant  Rajahs 
from  the  Ganges  and  Irish  Catholic  politicians 
from  the  Hudson  and  the  Ohio. 

I  have  already  remarked  on  the  official  difficul- 
ties that  beset  him  who  seeks  to  write  independ- 
ently regarding  the  great  German  Revolution  of 
1848 — he  can  find  more  light  on  this  period  in  the 
British  Museum  than  in  the  collections  of  Berlin 
or  even  Munich.  The  History  which  I  wrote  in 

199 


200      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

order  to  prove  that  the  uprising  against  Napoleon 
in  1813  was  a  popular  one,  gave  deep  offence  to 
the  military  aristocracy  in  Prussia  and  by  the 
Emperor  it  was  regarded  as  hostile  to  his  dynasty. 
Indeed  we  may  lay  it  down  as  part  of  the  creed 
of  every  modern  Prussian  that  he  pretend  to  ig- 
nore any  activities  that  have  not  their  origin  at 
the  Berlin  court.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  other- 
wise loyal  writers  on  matters  Hohenzollern  avoid 
the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  or  touch  upon 
it  as  might  an  orthodox  professor  in  a  popish 
theological  school  when  compelled  to  chronicle  the 
existence  of  such  heretical  pests  as  Wycliffe  or 
Huss,  Savonarola  or  Martin  Luther.  Orthodox 
Yunkers  and  the  generation  that  has  passed 
through  the  officially  tainted  schools  of  modern 
Prussia  with  its  Kultur  propaganda  skip  the  reign 
of  the  Emperor  who  reigned  but  ninety-nine  days 
(March-June,  1888).  The  textbooks  would  imply 
that  this  was  a  deplorable  period  of  lapse  from 
autocratic  virtue;  that  it  was  a  case  of  mental 
deficiency — or  if  that  position  could  not  be  main- 
tained then  the  public  must  be  taught  that  their 
Kaiser  of  the  shortest  reign  had  been  bewitched 
by  an  English  wife  and  had  ceased  to  be  a  normal 
Prussian  prince.  At  all  hazards  the  state  religion 
must  be  maintained  and  whenever  a  Hohenzollern 


Empress  Frederick  201 

shows  a  disposition  towards  liberal  ideas  it  must 
be  regarded  as  evidence  of  bad  health  or  bad 
company. 

Frederick  III.  had  been  betrothed  at  Bucking- 
ham Palace  to  Queen  Victoria's  gifted  daughter 
and  from  her  eighteenth  year  to  the  day  of  his 
death  they  offered  a  cheering  spectacle  of  happy 
family  life  and  constant  concern  for  works  of  pub- 
lic welfare.  The  wife  in  particular  gave  much 
of  her  time  and  money  to  promoting  the  improve- 
ment of  women — more  particularly  to  opening  up 
avenues  of  employment  in  which  they  might  earn 
honourable  subsistence.  In  the  Berlin  of  my  time 
the  man  who  would  assert  that  any  domestic 
servant,  shop  girl,  or  actress  regarded  her  virginity 
as  other  than  a  commercial  asset  would  have  been 
smiled  at  indulgently  as  a  recrudescent  Candide. 
Women  were  not  regarded  as  of  any  value  save 
as  the  property  of  a  man;  they  were  not  expected 
to  go  about  alone  save  at  their  peril;  men  felt  at 
liberty  to  make  indecent  proposals  to  any  woman 
in  a  public  place,  the  presumption  being  that  she 
was  out  on  a  man  hunt.  The  police  regarded  all 
women  as  prostitutes  unless  they  could  prove  the 
contrary — they  were  forbidden  to  ride  on  the  tops 
of  omnibuses  or  to  attend  political  meetings  or 
even  to  occupy  conspicuous  tables  in  restaurants. 


202      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Empress  Frederick  gave  her  life  to  the  task  of  in- 
fusing self-respect  into  the  Prussian  woman  and 
for  this  every  orthodox  man  cursed  her  and  his 
orthodox  wife  did  the  same — illustrating  the  an- 
cient maxim  that  if  you  wish  to  make  an  enemy 
for  life  you  have  but  to  do  him  a  favour. 

Her  husband  had  early  awakened  the  concern  of 
Bismarck  not  only  by  a  lack  of  enthusiasm  for 
that  minister's  policy  of  blood  and  iron  but  by  a 
scandalous  disposition  to  speak  favourably  of  men 
and  measures  constitutional.  The  Chancellor 
would  gladly  have  locked  up  this  prince  as  he  did 
Geffken;  or  degraded  him  as  he  did  Arnim  and 
Bunsen.  As  to  his  wife  he  would  have  had  her 
put  in  the  stocks  or  the  ducking  stool — but  Wil- 
helm  the  Venerable  loved  his  boy  Fritz,  much  as 
he  deplored  the  dangerous  doctrines  which  he  had 
evidently  absorbed  from  his  wife.  He  would  not 
do  all  that  Bismarck  would  have  done,  but  he 
yielded  so  far  as  to  forbid  the  then  Crown  Prince 
from  expressing  any  opinions  in  public — and  the 
son  had  to  obey. 

But  the  wise  people  knew  that  Frederick  the 
Noble  was  with  them  in  spirit,  and  when  he 
mounted  the  throne  every  liberal  breathed  more 
freely;  and  on  the  streets  you  could  tell  his  wife 
by  some  ornament  on  which  was  the  head  of  their 


Empress  Frederick  203 

beloved  Fritz.  Wilhelm  II.  was  nicknamed  the 
Reise  Kaiser  and  Wilhelm  I.  the  Greise  Kaiser,  but 
for  Frederick  the  Noble  was  reserved  a  name 
infinitely  more  precious,  Der  Weise  Kaiser! 

He  came  to  the  throne  a  dying  man — exhausted 
by  a  syndicate  of  experimenting  surgeons — but  his 
first  act  (March  12,  1888)  was  to  launch  upon  an 
astonished  world  such  a  proclamation  as  Prussia 
had  never  known  from  any  ruler  by  right  divine — 
a  proclamation  that  made  Bismarck  angry  but 
which  made  the  hearts  of  good  men  rejoice  at  the 
prospect  of  a  reign  with  less  rattling  of  sabres  and 
less  persecution  for  Kanzlerbeleidigung. 

We  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  speculating 
here  on  the  moral  greatness  to  which  Germany 
might  have  aspired  under  the  leadership  of  this 
man  and  his  remarkable  wife.  His  reign  of  ninety- 
nine  days  is  practically  ignored  by  the  bulk  of 
courtly  historians  yet  that  reign  was  marked  by 
acts  which  in  the  eyes  of  the  ruling  caste  were  little 
short  of  revolutionary.  The  state  paper  inaugurat- 
ing his  rule  was  written  or  inspired  not  by  Bismarck 
but  by  Professor  Geffken — a  significant  fact  that 
did  not  fail  to  alarm  all  Yunkerdom.  Next  came 
a  general  pardon  for  political  offenders  and  an 
intimation  that  henceforth  Germany  was  to  enjoy 
a  government  for  the  people  and  not  for  the  Yun- 


204      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

kers  only.  Several  of  his  old  and  trusted  liberal 
friends  and  advisers  were  selected  for  reward  in 
the  shape  of  a  title  or  decoration,  but  though  Bis- 
marck put  a  sharp  veto  upon  most  of  them,  the 
fact  became  known  in  time  and  the  friends  of  the 
dying  monarch  increased.  Bismarck  also  vetoed 
a  marriage  which  the  imperial  pair  had  projected 
for  one  of  their  children — a  small  matter  histori- 
cally, but  a  mighty  means  of  bruiting  to  a  delighted 
Yunkerthum  that  this  Kaiser  of  the  proletariat  had 
found  more  than  his  match  in  their  man  of  blood 
and  iron.  Rule  or  ruin  was  on  the  Bismarckian 
banner;  yet  to  bully  a  dying  man  was  not  much  of 
an  achievement.  Still  less  can  we  forgive  him  for 
launching  through  the  press  persistent  defamation 
of  the  Empress  Frederick  in  order  to  make  both 
of  them  appear  alien  to  German  ideals  and  pre- 
judiced in  favour  of  the  hated  English.  They  did, 
to  be  sure,  attempt  to  teach  Germans  the  value  of 
personal  cleanliness;  of  ventilation,  and  above  all 
to  wean  them  from  the  barbarous  practice  of  diet- 
ing children  on  beer,  coffee,  and  sausage  rather 
than  the  milky  nursery  diet  of  civilization.  To 
me  the  Prussian  seemed  to  have  lost  the  sense  of 
smell  for  he  could  continue  in  shops,  theatres,  and 
schoolrooms  whose  odour  made  my  head  ache. 
The  rooms  in  which  I  played  as  a  child  with  the 


Frederick  the  Noble          205 

children  of  Frederick  the  Noble  and  his  wife  were 
exceptional  in  the  Prussia  of  1871  for  simplicity, 
good  taste,  and  above  all  fresh  air.  Whenever 
weather  permitted  we  had  meals  in  the  open  air, 
and  these  meals  were  my  delight  for  there  was 
always  an  abundance  of  milk  and  bread  and  plain 
English  raisin  cake  and  jam — the  very  opposite 
of  the  deleterious  delikatessen  diet  forced  upon  my 
rebellious  inner  tubes  by  a  tutor  famed  more  for 
his  knowledge  of  Greek  roots  than  the  food  calories 
of  a  growing  boy. 

At  these  palace  entertainments  there  was  an- 
other feature  that  impressed  me  and  was  never 
omitted — namely  the  presence  of  the  royal  parents, 
who  invariably  said  a  few  welcoming  words  to 
each  of  the  little  guests  and  sent  them  home  with 
kind  messages  for  father  and  mother.  All  this 
happened  nearly  half  a  century  ago,  but  at  an  age 
when  impressions  are  lasting.  I  see  them  now,  he 
in  the  undress  frock  coat  of  an  infantry  general — 
an  old  coat  usually,  and  one  comfortably  loosened 
in  warm  weather;  she  leaning  on  his  arm,  the 
picture  of  motherly  pride  and  domestic  responsi- 
bility. They  inspected  the  food  and  satisfied 
themselves  that  it  was  wholesome  no  less  than 
sufficient  and  any  child  there  could  feel  that  the 
regime  of  that  nursery  was  strict,  wholesome,  and 


2o6      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

eminently  un-Prussian.  Frederick  the  Noble  died 
at  the  end  of  his  ninety-nine  days,  mourned  sin- 
cerely by  those  who  dreaded  a  return  to  military 
autocracy  and  who  instinctively  foreshadowed  the 
crash  of  today.  Bismarck  and  the  Yunkers  con- 
cealed their  joy  when  in  public,  but  privately 
praised  God  for  having  removed  so  dangerous  a 
man  from  their  throne.  All  these  now  turned  in 
noisy  loyalty  to  the  new  Emperor  who  was  already 
dear  to  them  as  a  champion  of  military  expansion 
and  mediaeval  autocracy.  Frederick  the  Noble 
was  quickly  expunged  from  the  official  slate,  his 
widow  retired  far  from  Berlin,  and  even  the  name 
which  she  had  given  to  her  Potsdam  palace  was 
not  allowed  to  stand — but  was  altered  by  order 
of  her  son. 

She  bore  eight  children  and  was  to  them  an 
exemplary  mother  as  she  was  a  devoted  helpmeet 
to  her  husband.  In  1901  she  was  released  from  a 
life  that  had  lasted  sixty-one  years,  more  than  half 
of  which  had  been  embittered  by  the  persecutions 
of  a  Chancellor  who  spared  neither  character,  age, 
nor  sex. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

Wilhelm  II.  a  Pacifist  until  the  Opening  of  the  Kiel 

Canal — How  the  Change  in  his  Policy  was 

Produced 

A  A  7ILHELM  II.  became  Kaiser  in  1888  and 
thirty  years  later  fled  from  the  midst  of  his 
troops  on  the  battle-front.  Thirty  years  was  the 
term  of  his  grandfather's  rule,  counting  the  regency, 
and  these  two  periods  may  be  epitomized  by  noting 
that  while  the  present  Imperial  refugee  changed 
his  chief  minister  half  a  dozen  times,  the  first 
Wilhelm  had  but  the  one  Bismarck.  Hence  the 
student  is  not  surprised  to  learn  that  the  three 
decades  preceding  1888  were  notable  for  continuity 
and  persistence  of  political  purpose,  while  these 
last  three  preceding  the  flight  from  Spa  have  been 
a  perpetual  source  of  disquietude  abroad  no  less 
than  expectant  anxiety  at  home.  In  Potsdam, 
during  the  war  of  1870,  a  German  lad  some  years 
my  senior  who  was  preparing  himself  for  pro- 
fessional life,  one  day  took  me  into  his  confidence 

207 


208      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

so  far  as  to  produce  from  their  hiding-place  some 
pamphlets  that  had  belonged  to  his  father  and 
which,  if  discovered  would,  said  he,  cause  his  arrest 
and  trial  for  treason.  He  was  very  proud  of  his 
father,  who  had  fought  in  the  revolution  of  '48, 
and  he  cherished  these  documents  above  all  his 
other  possessions.  He  was  one  of  the  few  Germans 
of  my  time  who  had  what  we  call  character  or 
individuality — a  most  un-Prussian  one  he  was,  for 
he  never  told  me  a  lie. 

When  I  commenced  to  study  history  outside  of 
government  text-books,  one  feature  that  struck 
me  was  the  almost  complete  effacement  of  what 
we  call  the  people  from  modern  German  history; 
and  when  Wilhelm  II.  became  Emperor  it  natur- 
ally followed  that  I  should  solicit  his  aid  in  securing 
access  to  the  archives  which  are  usually  reserved 
for  officials.  My  request  was  granted;  and  thus  I 
was  enabled  to  write  my  history  from  an  American 
point  of  view.  The  first  volume  appeared  in  1896. 

My  reference  to  German  affairs  had  been  usually 
laudatory,  for  in  every  department  of  municipal 
and  military  work  it  is  to  Germany  that  we  must 
go  for  lessons  in  the  administration  of  cities  and 
above  all  in  that  of  an  army. 

Wilhelm  II.  showed  me  a  side  of  himself  that 
was  wholly  sympathetic;  he  professed  to  hate  noth- 


Unfriendliness  of  Russia       209 

ing  so  much  as  war,  and  on  each  occasion  that  the 
subject  recurred  he  vehemently  professed  the  one 
ambition  of  mounting  to  heaven  on  a  bandwagon 
blazing  with  the  text:  "He  kept  us  out  of  war. " 

Even  when  the  behaviour  of  Russia  was  un- 
friendly, not  to  say  bellicose;  when  the  Czar 
slighted  him  personally  and  advertised  marked 
preference  for  France;  when  the  hitherto  German 
University  of  Dorpat  became  wholly  Russified; 
when  the  Greek  hierarchy  was  encouraged  by  the 
police  to  persecute  German  Lutherans  in  the  Baltic 
provinces;  when,  in  short,  the  Romanoff  dynasty 
offered  every  provocation  to  a  duel,  Wilhelm  II. 
told  me  earnestly  and  with  a  bang  of  the  fist  on  his 
table  that  under  no  conceivable  circumstances 
would  he  ever  go  to  war  with  Russia.  "We  two," 
he  exclaimed  earnestly,  "are  all  that  now  remains 
of  absolute  monarchy  in  Europe!" — and  now 
(1919)  the  Romanoff  empire  is  an  ash  heap  and 
Germany  a  wilderness  of  debating  clubs  and  riot- 
ous reformers. 

At  the  outset  of  his  reign  he  was  not  merely  on 
good  terms  with  official  England,  but  cultivated 
ardently  the  friendship  of  her  people.  In  this  he 
found  me  a  warm  supporter,  for  nothing  seemed 
then  more  conducive  to  the  peace  of  Europe  than 
an  understanding  between  John  Bull,  the  big  police- 


210      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

man  of  the  high  seas,  and  the  Wilhelm  who  com- 
manded the  strongest  land  force  of  his  day.  To- 
gether they  could  readily  restrain  others  from  war 
and  inaugurate  the  reign  of  a  new  Augustus.  Nor 
did  this  then  appear  Utopian,  for  in  those  early 
years  of  his  reign  British  officers  exchanged  with 
their  colleagues  of  Berlin  military  information  re- 
garding Russia;  and  both  looked  forward  to  a 
campaign  as  allies,  not  merely  on  the  Volga  but 
also  on  the  Oxus. 

During  these  early  years  I  had  made  a  Rob  Roy 
canoe  cruise  from  the  headquarters  of  the  Danube 
to  the  Russian  border  near  Galatz,  eighteen  hun- 
dred miles;  had  then  made  two  different  journeys 
through  western  Russia  between  the  Black  Sea 
and  Baltic  bringing  back  some  information  useful 
to  both  England  and  Germany.  Europe  then 
halted  on  the  brink  of  war  and  the  halt  was  called 
by  Wilhelm.  Had  he  then  fought  he  would  have 
had  an  ally  in  England  and,  above  all,  a  just  cause 
of  quarrel  in  the  persistent  persecution  of  his  co- 
religionists in  Russia.  He  could  easily  have  had 
all  Poland  for  him  by  a  few  generous  promises — 
to  say  nothing  of  the  Jews  who  had  much  to  com- 
plain of  at  Muscovite  hands.  Today,  looking  back 
over  the  bloodshed,  barbarity,  and  unsportsman- 
like behaviour  that  has  characterized  this  war; 


The  Kiel  Canal  211 

and,  above  all,  the  inanity  of  the  pretext,  we  stand 
amazed  at  one  who  missed  so  good  an  opportunity 
as  that  which  offered  in  1891 — and  which  never 
came  to  him  a  second  time.  / 

The  Kiel  Canal,  built  on  territory  torn  from 
Denmark  (1864),  was  opened  in  1895 — thus  raising 
in  Wilhelm  the  belief  that  he  could  dominate  both 
Baltic  and  North  Sea  and  ultimately  claim  a  mari- 
time rank  second  to  no  other  power — not  even 
England. 

Perhaps  this  was  at  the  back  of  Wilhelm's  brain 
even  when  pretending  more  than  formal  friend- 
ship with  the  land  of  his  grandmother — or  perhaps 
we  do  wrong  to  seek  rational  explanation  from  the 
acts  or  words  of  one  whom  learned  alienists  have 
pronounced  a  paranoiac.  Wilhelm  I.  and  his  Chan- 
cellor were  never  deterred  for  long  by  moral 
scruples ;  but  through  the  duplicities  and  even  for- 
geries of  Bismarck  we  are  compelled  to  recognize 
a  result  commensurate  with  the  crimes  committed 
in  their  behalf.  In  the  case  of  Wilhelm  II.  we  may 
rank  him  as  a  disciple  of  the  Iron  Chancellor  in  all 
that  pertains  to  diplomatic  and  military  villainy, 
but  we  cannot  discover  the  higher  qualities  with- 
out which  even  the  most  elaborate  and  artistic 
mendacity  is  barren.  Consider  the  years  1888  to 
1896  and  the  kaleidoscopic  whirligig  in  and  about 


212      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Berlin!  Each  year  Wilhelm  visited  England — his 
grandmother  at  Windsor  or  some  nobleman  on  his 
estates — or  best  of  all  the  yachts  and  warships  in 
Southampton  water.  He  wished  to  be  known  as 
first  of  all  a  true  British  sportsman  to  whom  the 
stiff  Prussian  etiquette  was  wearisome.  He  loved 
to  dress  up  as  a  British  admiral  and  show  interest 
in  the  fighting  fleet  of  his  neighbors;  indeed,  he  has 
to  me  reeled  off  details  regarding  the  names,  ton- 
nage, speed,  and  armament  of  ships  flying  the  white 
ensign,  astonishing  in  any  but  an  active  officer  of 
that  navy.  England  felt  flattered  by  his  thirst  for 
maritime  knowledge  and  showed  him  her  treasures 
afloat  as  to  one  who  would  no  doubt  reciprocate 
at  the  first  convenient  opportunity.  But  as  time 
passed  and  German  naval  manoeuvres  were  an- 
nounced, and  English  officers  (to  say  nothing  of 
American)  were  carefully  kept  on  land,  or  at  least 
at  a  safe  distance,  enthusiasm  began  to  cool,  par- 
ticularly when  the  true  purpose  of  the  Kiel  Canal 
came  to  be  more  generally  understood.  Of  course 
all  the  good  ships  of  the  German  navy  were  there 
displayed  and  of  course  all  but  German  officers 
were  excluded.  The  United  States  sent  Admiral 
Evans  to  that  international  congress  of  sea  notables 
and  his  fleet  comprised  what  was  most  modern  in 
naval  construction  and — most  worth  concealing 


Wilhelminian  Mentality       213 

from  a  foreigner.  But  who  then  could  think  of 
Wilhelm  II.  as  other  than  the  friend  of  America! 
So  the  German  Emperor  passed  a  jovial  evening  on 
board  the  American  flagship;  inspected  the  latest 
inventions  which  we  had  successfully  applied; 
made  himself  popular  by  his  bluffness  and  infantile 
thirst  for  novelty  and  carried  this  beautiful  nursery 
trait  so  far  that  he  next  day  secured  through  a 
trusty  deputy,  and  of  course  with  American  assist- 
ance, all  the  detailed  information  he  coveted. 
In  return,  no  American  was  permitted  to  see  any- 
thing aboard  any  of  the  Kaiser's  craft! — and  it  is 
interesting  to  reflect  that  three  years  later  the  same 
Admiral  Diedrichs  whom  I  met  then  at  Kiel  was 
in  the  name  of  this  very  same  genial  Kaiser,  seek- 
ing to  bully  the  American  Admiral  Dewey  in 
Manila  Bay. 

In  the  study  of  Wilhelminian  mentality  I  am 
therefore  inclined  to  believe  that  two  impulses 
were  jostling  the  Imperial  brain  between  1888  and 
1896 — one  to  join  with  England  and  defy  Russia, 
the  other  to  imitate  England  until  such  time  as  he 
might  defy  her  also,  not  merely  on  land  but  on  the 
seven  seas  as  well. 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

Some    Anecdotes    about   Wilhelm   II. — His   Klepto- 
mania and  Cleverness  in  Securing  Information 
— Yachting  in  Germany — Kiel 

T  F  a  guest  should  carry  off  a  pair  of  my  trousers 
*  in  his  baggage  the  inference  would  be  that  it 
had  been  done  by  mistake.  If,  however,  the  same 
sort  of  absent-mindedness  should  recur  at  other 
houses  and  by  the  same  agency  we  might  be  justi- 
fied in  diagnosing  the  disease  as  either  kleptomania 
or  worse.  The  world  was  very  indulgent  to  Wil- 
helm II.  in  his  earlier  years  and  many  violent 
expressions  were  forgiven  because  they  smacked 
of  extreme  youth  and,  after  all,  sounded  warlike, 
manly,  and  generous.  When  he  told  his  recruits 
that  they  must  be  ready  to  shoot  even  their  own 
parents,  if  the  order  came  from  their  Kaiser,  no 
one  then  believed  him  to  be  in  earnest ;  and  when  he 
referred  to  all  political  opponents  as  undesirables 
and  vagabonds  (Vaterlandslose  gesellen),  older 
people  smiled  and  assumed  that  such  words  were 

214 


Regis  Voluntas  215 

spoken  in  the  heat  of  an  after-dinner  speech  and 
would  be  forgotten  when  the  fumes  of  wine  should 
have  passed  away.  But  Wilhelm  II.  was  no  less 
pious  nor  less  autocratic  than  his  illustrious 
resting-in-God-grandfather;  and,  while  he  built 
churches  to  an  extent  that  was  edifying  to  the 
disciples  of  peace,  he  reared  portentous  barracks 
on  a  scale  to  delight  the  worshippers  of  Mars.  He 
was  never  weary  of  reminding  his  subjects  that  his 
will  was  law,  because  he  was  divine ;  and  therefore 
disobedience  to  his  will  was  tantamount  to  sacri- 
lege. In  the  golden  book  of  the  free  and  very 
liberal  city  of  Munich  he  wrote  over  his  Imperial 
signature  the  scandalous  words  borrowed  from  a 
Roman  Caesar,  Regis  Voluntas,  suprema  lex — 
or,  done  into  easy  English,  "I  recognize  no  Con- 
stitution or  Parliament — my  word  alone  is  law!" 
The  Mayor  of  Munich  showed  me  this  in  his  book, 
nor  did  he  disguise  his  disgust  at  the  insult  offered 
to  a  self-governing  city — and  this  by  one  who  was 
then  guest  within  its  gates.  One  day  the  Kaiser 
referred  to  the  increase  of  Socialism,  and  said  to 
me  with  blazing  eyes  and  clenched  fist:  "They  are 
not  dangerous  yet,  but  so  soon  as  they  show  signs 
of  meaning  mischief  I  shall  make  short  work  of 
them." 

Shortly  after  this  was  the  annual  reunion  of 


216      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Socialists  in  the  northern  part  of  Berlin,  and  I  spent 
a  part  of  the  day  very  agreeably  in  their  company, 
for  it  was  a  family  holiday  and  the  casual  stranger 
would  have  noticed  nothing  more  than  a  rather 
large  beer  garden  filled  with  neatly  dressed  men, 
women,  and  children,  chatting  or  enjoying  the 
music.  Then  came  time  for  the  march  and  of 
course  I  joined  in  a  tramp  through  Berlin  with  my 
new-found  friends.  No  banners  were  allowed  and 
policemen  were  in  force  the  whole  way  eager  for 
an  excuse  to  show  their  zeal  against  the  political 
pariah.  That  evening  the  Emperor  asked  me 
jovially:  ''Well — and  how  did  you  spend  your 
day?"  "Marching  in  the  Socialist  parade!"  I 
said.  The  Emperor  looked  cloudy  for  a  moment, 
then  changed  his  mind,  recalled  that  I  was  not  a 
subject,  and  asked  with  a  touch  of  irony:  "And 
what  did  you  think  of  them?"  "If  those  people 
are  what  you  consider  your  worst,  then  you  are  to 
be  congratulated, "  was  my  answer.  At  which  the 
Emperor  looked  hard  at  me  for  a  moment  and  then 
talked  of  something  else.  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  his  tutor 
in  our  playmate  days,  said  to  me  after  his  pupil 
had  mounted  the  throne :  "  I  have  never  been  able 
to  explain  why  the  Emperor  was  ever  attracted  to 
you!"  And  without  commenting  on  a  tactfulness 
wholly  Prussian,  I  cheerfully  admit  that  the  con- 


Wilhelm  and  the  Miniature    217 

scientious  but  painfully  unimaginative  Hinzpeter 
voiced  a  problem  that  no  doubt  caused  him  infinite 
worry.  The  year  1896  is  now  so  far  away  that 
if  Hinzpeter  should  repeat  his  question  through 
some  obliging  agent  of  the  spiritual  world,  I  might 
be  tempted  to  reply  that  Wilhelm  courted  me  for 
the  same  reason  that  he  delighted  in  The  Last  of 
the  Mohicans  and  ''Buffalo  Bill. "  To  him  I  was  a 
novelty;  and  above  all  I  had  no  interests  in  Ger- 
many and  no  favours  to  ask  of  him.  As  an  American 
I  could  say  words  for  which  a  courtier  would  have 
been  disgraced;  and  while  from  him  I  have  ac- 
cepted nothing  save  innumerable  portraits,  which 
my  wife  conceals  behind  war  loan  posters  of  Gen- 
eral Pershing,  he,  on  the  contrary,  has  taken  from 
me  many  and  valuable  presents  to  which  his  title 
is  little  better  than  that  of  my  supposititious  guest 
with  the  yearning  for  alien  trousers.  He  showed 
so  ardent  an  interest  in  my  priceless  miniature  of 
the  Queen  Luise,  that  I  offered  to  let  him  see  it — 
reminding  him  that  I  valued  it  highly  as  a  gift 
from  the  venerable  Queen  of  Hanover  whose  blind 
husband  had  been  dethroned  by  Wilhelm  I.  (1866). 
Never  was  that  miniature  handed  back  to  me,  al- 
though I  spoke  of  it  earnestly  to  the  Emperor's 
principal  aide-de-camp,  the  late  General  von 
Zitzewitz.  Not  only  did  Wilhelm  rob  me  of  that 


218      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

precious  portrait,  but  his  courtiers  looked  at  one 
another  with  stupefaction  when  I  made  so  strange 
a  claim  upon  one  who  was  evidently  not  accus- 
tomed to  restoring  what  had  once  come  under  his 
all  coveting  hands.  This  happened  one  year  before 
the  Kiel  Canal  opening;  and  now  that  his  character 
has  had  more  ample  scope  for  showing  its  purely 
Prussian  features  I  recall  with  bitterness  my  fa- 
vourite American  cruising  canoe  Caribee  in  which 
I  had  shot  the  rapids  of  the  Iron  Gates.  Wilhelm 
showed  much  enthusiasm  for  this  to  him  novel 
craft;  and,  as  final  argument  towards  its  acquisi- 
tion, promised  me  that  each  of  his  many  sons  in 
turn  should  learn  to  be  expert  canoeists.  It  seemed 
therefore  no  less  a  patriotic  than  a  friendly  act  to 
present  this  costly  and  beautiful  craft  to  one  who 
loudly  proclaimed  his  love  for  yachting  in  general 
and  this  canoe  in  particular.  But  while  I  have 
lost  my  matchless  Caribee,  the  Kaiser  has  broken 
his  word,  for  when  I  visited  her  in  1913,  she  was 
hidden  away  amid  other  dust-covered  nautical 
curios  in  an  obscure  corner  of  his  boat-house  at 
Potsdam.  The  old  guardian  did  not  know  who  I 
was  and  I  stayed  but  long  enough  to  learn  that  my 
canoe  had  never  been  used  and  that  I  had  been  the 
victim  of  a  Prussian  promise.  And  now  that  there 
is  a  republic  on  the  Havel  I  fondly  dream  of  the 


Imperial  Yacht  Club          219 

day  when  Caribee  and  Queen  Luise  will  rejoice  the 
eyes  of  my  declining  years  and  thus  forgive  me 
for  ever  having  put  my  trust  (or  trousers)  in  the 
hands  of  a  Hohenzollern. 

Wilhelm  also  owes  me  money,  for  on  coming  to 
the  throne  he  immediately  started  a  German  imi- 
tation of  the  English  Royal  Yacht  Squadron  and 
constrained  his  faithful  to  become  members.  Of 
course  I  joined,  although  during  my  twenty-five 
years  of  life  membership  I  was  only  once  in  the 
club  rooms  and  then  but  long  enough  to  note  that 
no  one  else  was  there  but  myself;  and  that  no  one 
was  expected  ever  to  make  use  of  these  rooms 
excepting  officers  in  uniform.  I  had  paddled 
ashore  in  a  Caribee  replica  from  the  vessel  on  which 
I  was  quartered  as  Kaiser's  guest  during  the  canal 
opening  festival  (1895)  and  was  sharply  challenged 
by  the  sentry  when  meaning  to  land  at  the  stage 
facing  the  yacht  club  rooms.  He  had  orders  to 
shoot  any  one  attempting  this — unless  they  were 
in  uniform.  So  I  parleyed  and  Prussianized  to 
the  point  of  being  permitted  to  visit  the  Com- 
mandant of  the  naval  academy,  whom  I  knew, 
and  who  was  ipso  facto  guardian  of  the  build- 
ing in  which  were  the  so-called  club  rooms. 
But  for  this  diplomatic  duplicity,  or  shall  I 
say  presence  of  mind,  I  might  have  today 


220      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

boasted  of  being  expelled  from  a  club  that  I  had 
never  seen. 

The  Kaiser's  yacht  club  quickly  filled,  and  the 
annual  membership  volume  was  handsomely  illus- 
trated with  portraits,  diagrams,  and  Imperial 
emblems.  Myself  was  already  member  of  an 
English  yacht  club,  an  arch-Corinthian  one,  all 
of  whose  members  handled  their  own  craft  and 
loved  the  sea  for  the  wholesome  buffeting  that  gives 
keen  joy  to  the  natural  born  sailor.  It  was  there- 
fore surprising  to  me  on  glancing  over  this  alleged 
club  of  German  yachtsmen  to  find  on  its  lengthy 
list  scarce  any  save  such  as  regard  the  chief  end  of 
this  noble  sport  to  be  the  wearing  of  white  shoes 
and  a  cap  bearing  a  conspicuous  emblem.  In  this 
list  I  recognized  my  many  friends  of  the  Berlin 
court  who,  like  myself,  joined  to  please  the  Kaiser; 
and  to  whom  the  stem  or  stern  of  a  ship  meant 
no  more  than  they  did  to  Josephus  Journalisticus 
when  he  was  one  day  told  to  be  Secretary  of  the 
United  States  Navy.  Of  course  I  do  not  count  the 
German  naval  officers  who  raced  mainly  in  govern- 
ment boats — but  the  Kaiser  did ;  and  the  list  there- 
for made  up  in  quantity  of  names  what  it  lacked  in 
quality.  There  were  a  few  dozen  princes,  Japanese, 
Italian,  etc.,  also  English  and  American  millionaire 
owners  of  steam  yachts,  who  had  joined  the  club 


German  Sportsmen  221 

as  though  it  were  an  act  incidental  to  writing  one's 
name  in  the  Visitors'  book  at  the  palace.  The  club 
in  short  was  a  sham,  for  only  in  name  did  it  bear 
any  resemblance  to  the  real  yacht  clubs  of  England 
and  America.  Its  true  colours  were  hoisted  in  1914, 
when  it  converted  its  picture  pages  into  political 
cartoons  depicting  alleged  triumphs  of  the  German 
navy  over  the  discomfited  ships  of  France,  Italy, 
and  more  particularly  England.  In  view  of  the 
sorry  showing  made  by  the  Kaiser's  navy  through- 
out the  war,  and  particularly  in  its  final  surrender 
without  a  fight  in  1918,  such  cartoons  stir  our 
laughter  no  less  than  our  contempt.  Is  there  a 
club  of  gentlemen  throughout  the  world — any- 
where between  the  Thames  and  Tokyo — that  could 
show  such  bad  taste  as  to  make  even  the  pages  of 
its  leading  yacht  association  a  vehicle  for  propa- 
gating political  falsehood  such  as  only  a  Prussian 
landlubber  could  relish  ?  Of  course  I  wrote  a  letter 
condemning  this  unsportsmanlike  behaviour  and  of 
course  I  was  promptly  expelled  and,  of  course,  my 
money  was  not  returned;  and  I  can  only  hope  that 
all  other  non-German  members  have  been  similarly 
treated. 

Wilhelm  never  missed  any  opportunity  of  plac- 
ing himself  at  the  head  of  a  sporting  event  if  it 
had  an  international  character;  if  it  drew  foreign 


222      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

yachts  to  Kiel  and,  above  all,  if  it  proclaimed  the 
new  gospel  of  Hohenzollern  hegemony  afloat.  Now 
that  we  have  a  wealth  of  documentary  proof  re- 
garding his  treachery  towards  those  who  had 
trusted  him,  it  is  interesting  to  call  attention  to  his 
behaviour  in  1912,  on  the  occasion  of  the  last  nota- 
ble yacht  race  across  the  Atlantic  from  Sandy 
Hook  to  the  Lizard.  Robert  E.  Tod  (Lieut. 
Commander,  U.  S.  N.,  at  this  moment — in  charge 
of  the  port  of  Brest — )  inaugurated  this  event  and 
deserves  credit  for  reviving  the  spirit  for  deep  sea 
sailing  amongst  yachtsmen.  The  yachts  were  all 
either  English  or  American,  and  there  was  origin- 
ally not  the  slightest  idea  or  desire  that  Germany 
should  be  in  any  way  mixed  up  in  the  matter.  To 
the  amazement  of  an  innocent  world,  however,  the 
papers  announced  in  the  midst  of  the  preliminaries 
that  his  Gracious  Majesty  Wilhelm  II.  would  as- 
sume patronage  of  the  event;  would  offer  a  costly 
prize  for  the  winner,  and  would  console  the  others 
by  giving  each  a  photo  of  himself  duly  autographed. 
But  he  rightly  feared  that  our  gallant  yachtsmen, 
after  their  stormy  three  thousand  miles,  might  wish 
to  rest  content  at  the  snug  anchorage  beneath  the 
windows  of  a  real  yacht  club  at  Cowes  or  stretch 
their  legs  in  Piccadilly  and  Pall  Mall,  rather  than 
on  the  wearisome  streets  of  a  Baltic  city.  So  he 


Robert  E.  Tod  223 

craftily  compelled  them  to  continue  their  voyage 
all  the  way  to  the  Kiel  Yacht  Club  under  pain  of 
losing  the  alleged  costly  prizes,  to  say  nothing  of 
Imperial  favour.  The  Kaiser  again  broke  his  word, 
for  I  was  a  guest  on  Captain  Tod's  schooner,  and 
when  we  reached  the  Lizard  no  Imperial  stake- 
boat  or  timekeeper  was  there  as  had  been  promised, 
nor  did  my  gallant  host  receive  a  copy  of  the  cov- 
eted photograph  although  he  claimed  it  through 
the  Kaiser's  naval  attache  in  Washington.  The 
whole  episode  would  be  insignificant  save  for 
illuminating  a  dark  corner  in  the  Kaiser — a  corner 
whence  have  crawled  far  too  many  unsportsman- 
like reptiles.  No  one  had  asked  him  to  be  patron 
of  this  Anglo-American  Yacht  race;  indeed,  his 
meddling  was  privately  resented  however  dis- 
creetly it  may  have  been  accepted  in  public.  He 
had  no  interest  in  the  matter  save  that  of  magni- 
fying the  importance  of  his  own  Yacht  Club  and 
correspondingly  minimizing  that  of  his  Uncle 
Edward  VII.  He  did  not  enter  a  yacht — on  the 
contrary,  he  had  to  bring  pressure  upon  a  syndicate 
of  German  merchants  who  finally  fitted  out  one 
competitor,  built  in  America,  but  dressed  out  to 
look  like  a  bona  fide  product  of  Germany.  The 
members  of  the  mercantile  syndicate  that  came 
to  the  rescue  of  their  Imperial  master  in  this 


224     Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

crisis  no  doubt  were  each  rewarded  by  a  red 
eagle  order  of  the  fourth  class,  but  they  would 
no  doubt  now  gladly  exchange  this  for  the  money 
they  sank. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

Wilhelm  and  the  Jameson  Raid — Dismissal  of 
Bismarck 

EVER  since  Great  Britain  gave  to  Germany  her 
million  square  miles  of  Colonial  Empire  I 
have  noted  a  steady  increase  in  the  hatred  felt 
toward  the  Victorian  benefactor.  So  far  from 
recognizing  the  magnanimity,  not  to  say  pro- 
German  pacifism  that  marked  the  policy  of  West- 
minster, the  Prussians  were  trained  to  believe  that 
courtesy  was  synonym  for  weakness  and  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  a  strong  man  to  beat  and  rob  a 
weaker  one.  Whilst  the  labour  party  agitated  for 
better  conditions  of  life,  the  Berlin  Government 
kept  pace  by  pointing  out  that  England  was  their 
enemy  and  that  matters  would  improve  when  the 
black  eagle  of  Prussia  was  planted  more  frequently 
in  lands  now  occupied  by  the  banner  of  St.  George. 
The  philosopher  who  claimed  that  Truth  alone 
was  mighty  and  would  prevail  must  have  lived  in 
that  happy  time  when  there  were  no  Sinn  Feiners 
is  225 


226      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

and  no  Prussians;  for  Truth  means  nothing  to 
those  who  are  not  permitted  to  open  their  eyes. 
What  boots  it  that  for  a  hundred  years  England 
has  been  the  mother  of  self-governing  colonies  and 
that  under  British  rule  Ireland  has  more  liberal 
representation  than  even  Scotland  or  Wales? 
Hatred  of  England  is  in  the  creed  of  the  modern 
Hun-Hibernian  and  it  darkens  his  political  vision. 
On  the  first  day  of  January,  1896,  the  world  was 
startled  by  the  first  shot  in  a  series  of  quasi  skir- 
mishes culminating  in  the  grand  raid  of  1914.  I 
was  dining  that  night  in  Berlin  with  a  member  of 
the  diplomatic  body  and  at  the  same  table  sat  two 
of  the  Prussian  ministry.  News  had  arrived  that 
a  band  of  armed  Englishmen,  under  Dr.  Jameson, 
had  marched  into  the  Transvaal  to  relieve  Johan- 
nesburg which  at  that  time  was  ruled  despotically 
and  very  inefficiently  by  the  Boers.  Their  presi- 
dent Kruger  was  an  illiterate  and  fanatical  speci- 
men of  the  primitive  South  African  cattle-herder, 
reminiscent  of  a  frenzied  Peter  the  Hermit  or  John 
Brown  of  Ossawatomie.  He  was  uncompromis- 
ingly pious  in  a  faith  whose  devil  had  hoofs  and 
horns  and  spoke  English.  He  knew  of  John  Bull 
only  what  he  heard  from  Prussian  agents  who 
flattered  him  and  incidentally  secured  contracts 
for  arms  and  equipment.  His  private  secretary 


The  Jameson  Raid  227 

was  of  German  education  and  sympathy ;  and  if  I 
managed  to  learn  something  of  the  political  ma- 
chinery that  was  hurrying  the  Boers  to  their  fate 
a  few  years  later,  it  was  owing  to  having  friends 
amongst  the  Germans  who  then  ruled  Dr.  Leyds 
and  his  Transvaal  president. 

The  Jameson  Raid  was  instigated  and  financed 
by  a  small  syndicate  of  mine  owners,  mostly  Jew, 
who  were  hampered  in  their  enterprises  by  the 
very  mediaeval  and  corrupt  methods  adopted  by 
their  masters  in  Pretoria.  The  bulk  of  the  Jo- 
hannesburg population  was  English,  and  these  were 
weary  of  paying  all  the  taxes  and  getting  nothing 
in  return — not  even  a  vote.  And  therefore  any 
raid  that  would  put  an  end  to  so  undemocratic  a 
state  of  things  was  welcome  throughout  South 
Africa,  save  amongst  the  agents  and  dupes  of 
Prussia.  As  all  know,  the  Jameson  raid  was  no 
more  successful  than  John  Brown's  into  Virginia; 
"Doctor  Jim"  and  his  followers  were  made  pris- 
oners and  the  whole  matter  would  have  simmered 
down  to  rank  with  many  similar  border  troubles, 
in  countries  of  like  character,  had  not  Wilhelm  II. 
seized  this  opportunity  for  proclaiming  to  the 
world  a  purpose  hitherto  carefully  concealed — at 
least  from  me. 

Without  the  constitutional  countersign  of  his 


228      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

prime  minister  (the  amiable  and  senile  Hohen- 
lohe),  he  launched  from  his  Kreuzberg  Olympus  an 
electric  bolt  whose  eccentric  flashes  alarmed  every 
cabinet  of  Europe,  and  whose  ultimate  force  pene- 
trated the  soil  of  South  Africa  so  deeply  as  to  make 
every  burgher  from  Cape  Town  to  the  Zambesi 
feel  that  henceforth  the  Boer  had  a  champion  in 
Berlin.  This  cable  of  the  Kaiser,  commonly  called 
the  Kruger  despatch,  called  forth  almost  as  much 
consternation  amongst  responsible  officials  of  the 
Wilhelmstrasse  as  it  did  surprise  and  anger  through- 
out the  English-speaking  world.  The  words  of 
Wilhelm  II.  were  few  and  ambiguous,  but  to 
the  mind  of  a  superheated  Kruger  and  a  vio- 
lently anti-English  council  whose  understandings 
were  of  the  primitive  and  apostolic  order,  subject 
to  sudden  passionate  emotions  divinely  inspired 
from  Berlin — there  could  be  but  one  sense — 
namely,  that  the  German  Emperor  would  send  his 
entire  army  to  Pretoria  rather  than  permit  Queen 
Victoria  to  rule  there  any  longer. 

England  answered  this  insulting  cable  by  mo- 
bilizing a  flying  squadron.  The  German  army 
did  not  move  on  Pretoria;  and  the  official  press  of 
the  Kaiser  published  miles  of  type  proving  most 
effusively  that  the  words  of  the  cable  were  very 
innocent,  and  that  England  should  not  feel  hurt 


The  Kruger  Despatch         229 

by  language  so  Christian — so  timely!  But  my 
two  friends  of  the  Prussian  Cabinet  had  no  share 
in  this  mendacious  press  view.  When  I  asked  them 
what  they  thought  of  the  Kaiser's  cable,  each 
rolled  his  eyes  to  the  ceiling  and  each  clasped  his 
hands  over  his  head  and  each  exclaimed  with 
bitter  earnestness:  HERRRR  GOTT!  All  of  which 
being  interpreted  meant  that  each  desired  to  say: 
11  Great  God!  What  madness!  What  next!  What 
must  be  the  end  of  Germany  with  such  a  reckless 
hand  on  the  helm!"  The  Kruger  despatch  con- 
verted England  from  a  complaisant  and  very  credu- 
lous friend  into  a  suspicious,  not  to  say  hostile, 
neighbour.  The  Kaiser  had  virtually  challenged 
her  to  a  fight — but  had  quickly  quitted  the  field  on 
discovering  lo  his  disappointment  that  her  navy 
at  least  was  quite  ready;  and  that  behind  it  was 
an  aroused  public  sentiment  which  he  had  not 
anticipated. 

Needless  to  say  that  what  I  wrote  from  South 
Africa  in  regard  to  German  meddling  in  British 
affairs  pleased  Wilhelm  II.  even  less  than  my  his- 
tory, for  in  dealing  with  the  Kruger  despatch  I 
pointed  out  that  he,  as  Constitutional  Emperor, 
violated  his  oath  by  emitting  an  important  state 
document  without  the  countersign  of  a  responsible 
minister.  There  is  a  legend  about  the  bureaus  of 


230      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

his  capital  that  the  cable  was  indeed  read  to  some 
high  official — possibly  the  Chancellor  Hohenlohe— 
and  that  this  official  managed  to  tone  down  some 
passages  that  were  originally  more  offensive  than 
those  ultimately  entrusted  to  the  telegraph.  Even 
so,  the  time  had  come  when  he  thought  it  well  to 
announce  that  he  not  only  did  very  well  without 
Bismarck,  but  needed  no  prime  minister  at  all,  in 
the  constitutional  sense. 

We  of  America  have  gradually  become  accus- 
tomed to  a  President  who  selects  members  of  a 
Cabinet  as  others  choose  a  chauffeur,  a  butler,  or  a 
valet;  but  then  our  Constitution  is  more  than  a 
century  old  and  therefore  regarded  as  out  of  date 
by  politicians  who  draw  their  theories  from  the 
Republic  of  Plato  and  their  language  from  the 
rhetorical  arsenal  of  socialism.  The  founders  of 
the  American  Commonwealth  would  feel  as  lone- 
some at  the  office  entrance  of  the  White  House  as 
the  author  of  Christianity  on  the  steps  of  the  Vati- 
can. Wilhelm  II.  in  1896  brushed  aside  the  Con- 
stitution of  Germany  in  a  manner  that  would  have 
shocked  his  autocratic  grandfather.  Grave  Ger- 
mans wagged  their  heads  mournfully  at  this  des- 
patch; for  much  as  they  might  hate  Victoria,  or 
wish  well  to  her  enemies,  they  could  not  foresee 
good  from  nullifying  a  clause  of  their  Constitution 


Why  Bismarck  Retired        231 

which  was  about  the  only  one  protecting  the 
smaller  states  from  acts  purely  Prussian  and 
arbitrary. 

In  1890,  Wilhelm  II.  had  explained  to  me  with 
much  emphasis  and  apparent  frankness  his  reasons 
for  dismissing  Bismarck.  Those  which  he  gave 
did  honour  to  his  moral  courage  no  less  than  to  his 
filial  piety;  and  as  I  had  never  seen  in  the  Iron 
Chancellor  more  than  the  embodiment  of  superior 
cunning  and  physical  power — I  gladly  gave  credit 
to  this  version.  Wilhelm  told  me  that  Bismarck 
had  become  simply  impossible;  that  his  brutal 
methods  had  not  merely  discredited  Hohenzollern 
rule  amongst  Danes,  Poles,  and  French,  but  they 
had  not  achieved  the  success  promised.  And,  aside 
from  failure  in  matters  of  domestic  policy,  the 
Kaiser's  decision  to  part  with  the  veteran  Chan- 
cellor had  been  reached,  he  assured  me,  by  learning 
of  the  part  he  had  played  in  permitting  attacks 
upon  the  reputation  of  a  woman  whom  he  revered 
no  less  as  a  gifted  mother  than  as  the  exalted 
Empress  before  whom  even  a  Bismarck  owed 
obedience. 

He  saw  in  the  Bismarck  of  1890  an  official  usurp- 
ing Imperial  powers ;  and  it  was  his  duty  to  protect 
the  Crown  from  encroachment — even  from  so 
powerful  a  source.  In  1896  the  rdles  were  reversed. 


232      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

It  was  now  an  Emperor  encroaching  upon  his  own 
Constitution,  but  there  was  no  Bismarck — at  least 
not  in  office.  Since  1890  Wilhelm  has  had  many 
ministers  but  all  have  been  pliant  or  easily  dis- 
missed. In  1896  he  decided  to  throw  aside  the 
mask  of  moderation,  not  to  say  pacifism,  to  which 
the  world  was  growing  accustomed;  and  from  this 
point  on  to  the  moment  of  raiding  France  from 
behind  a  curtain  of  poisonous  gas  we  have  almost 
annual  and  increasing  evidences  of  megalomania 
complicated  with  acute  anglophobia;  also  a  fanati- 
cal conviction  that  he  was  the  divine  agent  for 
purifying  a  rotten  world  by  ruling  it  according 
to  the  new  gospel  of  Prussian  Kultur. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

Wilhelm's  Anti-English  Crusade — Missionary  Policy 
— Seizure  of  Kiaochow — German  Treatment 
of  Rival  Traders  in  their  Colonies 

\\71LRELM  failed  in  1896— at  least  he  failed 
*  •  in  the  field  of  war  and  diplomacy;  but  his 
people  at  home  responded  to  a  propaganda  against 
England  which  was  intensified  by  the  Boer  War 
(1899)  and  which  made  this  Great  War  of  1*914 
almost  a  fanatical  crusade.  But  throughout  South 
Africa,  to  say  nothing  of  Australia,  Canada,  India, 
and  the  Eastern  ports  German  traders  cursed  their 
Kaiser  for  a  meddlesome  swashbuckler,  because 
from  the  day  of  the  Kruger  Despatch  Germans  be- 
came less  welcome  as  commercial  travellers.  How 
often  have  I  heard  honest  and  loyal  Germans  say: 
"Ach!  if  that  Kaiser  of  ours  would  only  leave  us 
alone ! — he  spoils  our  business  with  his  everlasting 
sword  rattling!" 

But  these  Germans  who  were  scattered  through- 
out the  great  colonial  world  of  England  had  little 

233 


234     Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

influence  at  home  where  the  Prussian  principle  of 
expansion  prevailed — the  principle  of  predatory 
warfare  disguised  in  various  ways  according  to  the 
necessities  of  each  case. 

In  1897  the  next  war  move  of  Wilhelm  was  made 
against  China;  and  the  pretext  was  pleasing  to 
the  Pope  no  less  than  to  a  syndicate  of  German 
contractors.  Two  Christian  missionaries  had  been 
killed  up  country  by  a  fanatical  mob  who  cordially 
detested  all  propagandists,  particularly  those  of 
the  popish  persuasion.  The  Chinese  Government 
had  sought  to  dissuade  these  men  of  mistaken  zeal 
from  invading  an  interior  city  with  their  doctrines 
of  social  anarchy;  but  a  conflict  was  desired  by 
Berlin ;  pretext  for  war  was  needed  and  a  couple  of 
missionaries  more  or  less  mattered  little  compared 
with  the  greater  glory  to  God  and  Kaiser  when  the 
Imperial  German  Eagle  should  scream  throughout 
the  sacred  province  of  Confucius  and  German  loco- 
motives whistle  from  Kiaochow  to  Tsi-nan-fu. 
Men  are  murdered  at  short  intervals  throughout 
our  great  republic,  sometimes  by  mobs;  but  we 
would  smile  at  those  who  should  therefor  call  us  a 
semi-civilized  people.  In  certain  sections  of  Spain 
or  South  America,  Italy,  or  even  the  enlightened 
home  of  St.  Patrick  a  mob  would  make  short  work 
of  any  missionary  daring  to  preach  anti-papal 


Christianity  in  China         235 

doctrine.  Such  people  would  be  assisted  to  the 
nearest  lamp  post  whether  they  drew  their  salary 
from  a  Buddhist,  Brahmin,  Mahometan,  or  Metho- 
dist society  for  the  spread  of  truth. 

China  to  me,  is  not  merejy  one  of  the  most 
favoured  in  all  that  makes  for  geographical  grand- 
eur and  fertility  of  soil,  but  her  people  have  prac- 
tised the  essentials  of  the  Christian  religion  many 
centuries  before  Christ  wandered  through  Palestine. 
The  great  Empire  of  Cathay,  well  named  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  has  an  area  about  equal  to  ours 
with  a  population  three  times  as  great.  The  honest 
merchant  or  tourist  may  travel  from  one  end  to  the 
other  with  less  danger  to  his  life  or  pocket  than  on 
any  similar  stretch  in  the  United  States — indeed 
he  will  be  amazed  at  the  high  standards  of  social 
purity,  domestic  happiness,  and  financial  honesty 
in  a  country  where  politicians  and  lawyers  are 
happily  few.  While  Europe  has  been  the  scene  of 
interminable  persecution  and  religious  wars  ever 
since  Christianity  secured  the  secular  arm  as  an 
ally,  China  has  not  only  preached,  but  practised, 
tolerance  to  all  purely  religious  bodies.  The  doc- 
trines of  the  gentle  Buddha  have  proved  congenial 
to  a  peace-loving  people,  and  the  wisdom  of  Con- 
fucius has  provided  a  proverbial  philosophy 
satisfying  to  the  man  of  letters  no  less  than  to  the 


236      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

labouring  coolie.  Strange  it  is  then  to  those  who 
learn  of  the  world  mainly  through  missionaries, 
that  in  a  land  where  dozens  of  religions  flourish  in 
peaceful  rivalry,  the  only  one  singled  out  for  public 
reprobation  should  be  that  of  the  "meek  and 
lowly "  Jesus.  If  you  ask  a  Chinese  man  of  the 
world  he  will  tell  you  that  of  all  sects  operating  in 
China  not  one  behaves  disloyally  save  only  the 
Christian,  and  more  particularly,  the  Roman 
Catholic.  All  other  sects  mind  their  own  business 
and  minister  to  their  own  souls.  The  Christian 
alone  pushes  into  the  country  by  means  of  gun- 
boats and  punitive  expeditions  preceded  by  offen- 
sive treaties  repugnant  to  the  people.  The  Chris- 
tian not  merely  denounces  a  faith  that  is  five 
centuries  older  than  his  own,  but  teaches  that  a 
Chinaman  should  be  loyal  to  a  ruler  on  the  Tiber 
rather  than  to  one  on  the  Yangtze  or  Hoang-ho. 
In  other  words  the  Chinese  head  of  a  respectable 
family  sees  in  our  well-financed  missionary  estab- 
lishment little  more  than  a  huge  propaganda  cal- 
culated to  undermine  domestic  virtue  and  on  its 
ruins  rear  a  theocracy,  plutocracy,  or  autocracy 
engineered  by  foreigners. 

Imagine  then  the  scandal  caused  no  less  in  China 
and  Japan  than  on  the  Ganges  and  the  Irrawaddy 
when  Wilhelm  II.  drew  with  his  own  hands  a  horrid 


The  Kaiser  Chuckles         237 

picture  of  some  Wagnerian  dragon  about  to 
pounce  upon  several  cowering  German  children. 
Over  the  pouncing  monster  hovered  a  slim  lieuten- 
ant of  the  Prussian  cuirassier  guards  labelled  St. 
Michael — who,  of  course,  kills  the  Buddhist  gar- 
goyle. The  Emperor  has  genius  in  so  many  fields 
that  he  is  necessarily  devoid  of  talent  in  any;  and, 
therefore,  this  picture  had  to  be  touched  up  by  a 
professional  draughtsman  before  it  was  launched 
on  its  disastrous  course.  This  was  Wilhelm's  con- 
ception of  the  "Yellow  peril"  and  to  make  it  clear 
that  the  mythical  beast  was  intended  to  symbolize 
all  Oriental  races  and  religions  he  attached  this 
legend:  "People  of  Europe,  protect  your  most 
sacred  treasures!" 

How  this  recalls  1914!  Whenever  in  this  war 
Wilhelm  contemplated  some  fresh  infringement  of 
international  law  he  would  first  charge  his  enemy 
with  the  crime  and  then  plead  it  in  justification. 
Thus  in  1897  having  first  inflamed  the  mind  of  his 
people  with  hatred  of  a  race  distinguished  for  its 
unwarlike  organization  he  chose  a  moment  when 
the  garrison  of  Kiaochow  had  not  a  round  of 
powder  in  order  to  make  a  raid  into  its  waters  and 
hold  it  by  way  of  indemnity  for  the  two  dead 
missionaries.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  if  the  Kaiser 
chuckled  when  he  learned  the  good  news !  By  the 


238      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

loss  of  only  two  Germans  he  had  secured  lordship 
over  Chinese  territory  about  equal  in  size  and 
population  to  the  whole  of  France — and  all  this 
without  firing  a  shot  or  expending  a  single  extra 
mark!  What  he  had  lost  at  Pretoria  was  amply 
made  up  to  him  in  Shantung;  and  as  he  rubbed  his 
hands  he  must  have  murmured  softly  beneath  his 
Schnurrbaribinde:  "If  my  missionaries  only  hold 
out,  I  shall  soon  own  the  earth." 

The  German  seizure  of  Kiaochow  was  an  act 
of  piracy  deeply  resented  by  Japan  no  less  than  by 
China.  It  was  also  resented  by  all  who  traded  in 
the  Far  East.  German  apologists,  who  have  echoed 
the  statements  put  forth  by  the  Berlin  foreign 
office,  have  sought  to  justify  this  rape  by  pointing 
to  acquisitions  made  by  Great  Britain.  There 
would  be  merit  in  such  a  plea  if  any  German  could 
point  to  any  British  colony  where  the  British  flag 
was  not  welcome  to  the  natives  no  less  than  to 
traders  in  search  of  justice.  Germans  flock  to 
Sydney,  Calcutta,  Rangoon,  and  Singapore  because 
under  the  British  flag  they  share  in  all  the  rights 
of  the  Englishman  with  very  few  of  his  burdens. 
Consequently  the  Chinese  welcome  Englishmen 
as  masters  of  Hong  Kong;  they  made  no  objec- 
tion when  the  Kowloon  territory  was  annexed 
(1898)  and  Wei-hai-wei  became  British  almost 


German  Colonial  Methods     239 

automatically  after  the  Prussian  seizure  of  Kiao- 
chow. 

Throughout  the  Far  East  from  time  out  of  mind 
the  flag  of  Great  Britain  has  meant  suppression  of 
piracy;  charts,  lighthouses,  and  freedom  of  the 
seas.  On  the  contrary  wherever  the  German  flag 
has  appeared  there  have  come  the  selfish  methods 
of  Prussia,  the  unequal  administration  of  law, 
the  violation  of  treaties,  revival  of  slavery  and 
sharp  discrimination  against  foreigners.  And  while 
throughout  the  British  world  Germans  continued 
to  enjoy  the  treatment  of  the  most  favoured,  in 
every  German  colony  the  English  trader  was  an 
object  of  petty  persecution  instigated  by  officials 
and  gladly  seconded  by  their  all  too  willing  coun- 
trymen. This  matter  I  have  ventilated  freely 
wherever  opportunity  offered  in  the  press  or  on  the 
platform  before  bodies  of  German  geographers  or 
economists — but  my  words  have  been  attributed 
to  pro-English  prejudice. 

When  Wilhelm  annexed  Kiaochow  he  made  a 
quasi  treaty  on  the  subject  which  sounded  well 
enough  and  would  have  been  hailed  with  universal 
joy  had  it  been  signed  by  a  British  plenipotentiary. 
But  this  German  treaty  soon  proved  another  scrap 
of  paper;  for  whatever  the  wording  might  have 
been,  the  practical  effect  was  to  make  the  whole  of 


240      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Shantung  one  Prussian  preserve  in  which  other 
than  Germans  entered  at  their  peril. 

Next  year  it  was  the  turn  of  the  United  States — 
but  before  entering  Manila  Bay  let  me  point  out 
that  Prussia  in  her  dealings  with  other  nations  has 
so  cloaked  her  dishonest  proceedings  that  at  each 
individual  one  her  neighbours  have  not  thought 
it  worth  a  war,  albeit  the  sum  of  her  petty  crimes 
has  led  directly  to  the  prison  of  Amerongen. 

My  first  visit  in  Chinese  waters  was  1876,  my 
second  in  1898,  the  third  in  1906,  and  the  last  in 
1910.  Each  of  these  intervals  marked  the  progress 
of  Prussian  propaganda  with  its  hostile  head  to- 
wards England.  All  white  nations  fraternize  when 
ten  thousand  miles  from  home  and  all  would  natur- 
ally recognize  the  debt  due  to  England  for  such 
rights  as  they  enjoy  in  countries  where  political 
institutions  are  of  a  precarious  nature.  The  Ger- 
man would  naturally  have  been  a  co-operative  unit 
in  1898  as  he  was  in  1876;  but  his  Consul  and  the 
agents  of  subsidized  lines  and  the  commercial 
travellers  acting  for  banks  and  manufacturing 
houses  affiliated  with  Government  bureaus  of 
Berlin — all  these  together  united  in  encouraging 
separate  German  clubs,  in  every  British  or  treaty 
port.  In  these  the  German  language  only  was 
permitted  and  every  scheme  was  encouraged  that 


Colonial  Propaganda          241 

could  damage  English  prestige  and  exalt  the  glory 
of  Deutschland  in  the  eyes  of  Malay,  Hindoo,  or 
Chinese.  In  1876  there  was  but  one  sentiment, 
one  club  in  each  of  the  Asiatic  treaty  ports.  Here 
gathered  the  English  and  Americans, — merchants, 
travellers,  naval  officers,  and  here  were  discussed 
common  measures  for  streets,  fire  brigade,  local 
police,  or  defence  in  case  of  native  riots.  The  whole 
white  community  was  one,  whether  Swiss,  or 
Swede,  French,  German,  or  Anglo-Saxon.  And  so 
did  these  happy  families  remain  until  the  poison 
of  "Deutschland  uber  Alles!"  worked  its  way 
from  the  centres  of  propaganda  in  Berlin,  thanks 
to  the  many  subsidized  agencies  that  have  followed 
in  the  wake  of  the  new  policy  of  colonization. 
People  far  away  felt  this  malevolent  influence  but 
those  of  London  could  not.  And  while  German 
officials  truculently  demanded  as  their  right  every 
scrap  of  privilege  commonly  regarded  as  inter- 
national courtesy,  English  merchants  found  scant 
sympathy  when  they  sought  to  interest  their 
colonial  department  in  case  after  case  in  which  the 
Kaiser's  Government  had  violated  treaties  and 
misused  English  merchants.  And  so  Wilhelm  II. 
was  encouraged  in  his  dreams  of  Empire  by  dis- 
covering that  the  dreams  of  Downing  Street  were 
dreams  of  peace. 

16 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

Admiral  Diedrichs  Picks  a  Quarrel  with  Dewey  in  1898 
— Manila  Bay — England  Stands  by  America 


JN  1898  Wilhelm  II.  celebrated  the  third  anni- 
*  versary  of  the  Kiel  opening  by  seeking  a  quarrel 
with  Uncle  Sam  during  the  Spanish-American 
War.  For  this  purpose  he  sent  a  large  squadron 
under  Admiral  Diedrichs  to  Manila  Bay  with 
orders  vague  enough  for  any  purpose — particu- 
larly that  of  seizing  something  from  the  wreck 
of  Spain's  colonial  empire.  The  German  admiral 
was  already  a  hero  in  German  eyes,  for  it  was  he 
who  had  annexed  Kiaochow  to  the  Empire  and 
at  the  moment  of  steaming  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Pasig  River  a  noble  monument  was  being  reared 
in  his  honour  on  the  field  of  his  bloodless  but 
theatrical  conquest.  Prussia  rears  monuments  to 
Victory,  whichever  side  wins,  which  explains  the 
quantity  even  though  it  does  not  always  exalt  the 
quality  of  her  architectural  display.  The  grandest 
of  Prussia's  triumphal  arches  is  the  Brandenburg 

242 


Admiral  Diedrichs  243 

one  of  Berlin  which  commemorates  the  victory  of 
France's  ragged  republican  army  over  that  of  the 
Prussian  King  Frederick  Wilhelm  II.  at  Valmy 
(1792)  and  the  time  is  ripe  for  another  Arch  of 
Triumph  in  Berlin  to  similarly  stir  the  patriotism 
of  her  people — maybe  it  will  be  called  the  Ameron- 
gen  Thor  or  the  Spa  Exit  or  something  equally 
calculated  to  recall  the  retreat  of  their  army  from 
before  the  Allies  of  1918  and  the  welcome  of  that 
army — as  from  another  Valmy!  The  shabby 
success  at  Kiaochow  had  so  turned  the  head  of 
Diedrichs  that  he  counted  on  an  easy  job  so  far 
as  the  contemptibly  small  force  of  Admiral  Dewey 
was  concerned.  The  Pope  was  of  course  on  the 
side  of  Spain  and  most  cordial  was  he  also  with 
the  Kaiser.  Diedrichs  therefore  fraternized  with 
the  Spanish  garrison ;  contemptuously  ignoring  the 
port  regulations  laid  down  by  Dewey.  So  far  did 
this  insolence  go  that  although  Germany  was 
nominally  neutral,  her  ships  that  plied  between 
Hong  Kong  and  the  Philippines  neglected  the  usual 
courtesy  of  assisting  in  the  mail  service  although 
they  smuggled  away  the  Spanish  Governor  and  of 
course  denied  all  knowledge  in  the  matter.  Had  a 
pacifist  then  ruled  in  Washington  or  had  another 
than  Dewey  commanded  at  Manila,  the  bullying 
of  Diedrichs  would  have  imposed  upon  some  of 


244      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

the  Americans  concerned;  for  our  fleet  was  short  of 
coal  and  ammunition  and  was  anxiously  waiting 
for  the  regiments  that  were  to  come  from  Califor- 
nia and  make  the  conquest  complete. 

These  pages  being  a  study  of  Wilhelm  II.  and 
not  a  history  of  the  Spanish  War  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  recall  to  children  that  when  war  was  declared, 
Dewey  who  commanded  our  ships  in  Asiatic  waters 
received  a  very  curt  but  comprehensive  order  to 
immediately  hunt  for  and  destroy  every  warship 
of  Spain.  He  did  so,  and  did  it  so  completely  that 
by  sunset  of  May  1st  there  was  not  a  Spanish  flag 
afloat  east  of  Suez — there  was  practically  nothing 
left  of  that  enormous  colonial  empire  which  had 
been  granted  to  her  some  four  centuries  ago  by  no 
less  a  landlord  than  the  infallible  vicar  of  God  on 
Earth. 

The  career  of  Diedrichs  would  read  oddly  else- 
where than  Berlin,  for  he  had  first  served  in  the 
army,  then  had  spent  some  years  on  merchant 
ships,  and  finally  entered  the  navy  of  Prussia  in 
1865,  after  the  Danish  war.  Dewey  was  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy  (Annapo- 
lis) at  the  beginning  of  our  Civil  War;  and,  in  the 
next  few  years,  participated  not  merely  in  such 
memorable  actions  as  forcing  a  passage  up  the 
Mississippi  under  Farragut  in  1862  but  in  dozens 


Admiral  Dewey  245 

of  minor  ones  which  gave  him  a  war  experience 
second  to  no  naval  officer  of  his  years.  In  all  his 
life  Diedrichs  had  less  fighting  afloat  than  Dewey 
in  any  one  week  between  the  fall  of  Sumter  and 
the  surrender  of  Lee  at  Appomattox.  But  Died- 
richs had  one  advantage  over  Dewey  which  he 
shared  with  most  of  his  Prussian  colleagues  both 
ashore  and  afloat — our  Admiral  could  not  bring 
himself  to  say  what  he  knew  to  be  false. 

Dewey  at  first  courteously  called  the  German's 
attention  to  facts  which  any  but  a  wilful  enemy 
would  have  respected — notably  that  the  American 
flag  was  in  those  waters  to  be  saluted  as  that  of  the 
temporarily  supreme.  But  Diedrichs  persisted  in 
ignoring  the  status  of  Dewey;  his  officers  cruised 
about  by  day  or  night  paying  regard  neither  to  the 
rules  of  marine  law  nor  international  courtesy, 
much  less  the  much-talked-of  hereditary  friendship 
between  Germany  and  America.  Finally  Dewey 
flatly  challenged  the  German  Admiral  to  fight  and 
at  that  the  bully  collapsed  completely — just  as 
did  his  Kaiser  when  John  Bull  mobilized  a  flying 
squadron  after  the  Kruger  dispatch. 

The  details  of  this  international  episode  I  hold 
from  the  lips  of  both  Admiral  Dewey  and  his  warm 
friend  Admiral  Chichester  of  the  British  Navy, 
both  of  whom  I  met  for  the  first  time  in  Manila 


246      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Bay  during  that  very  warm  period.  The  whole 
story  I  heard  repeated  after  a  few  years'  interval, 
by  our  Admiral  in  Washington  and  by  the  Briton 
in  London.  From  others  who  were  there  at  the 
time  I  have  verified  every  detail,  so  that  for  his- 
torical purpose  few  critical  moments  in  military 
events  have  been  narrated  from  so  many  angles 
and  by  men  so  truth-loving  and  sportsmanlike  as 
that  one  in  which  Wilhelm  used  Diedrichs  for  the 
purpose  of  frightening  Dewey.  The  attempt  failed 
pitifully.  Diedrichs  had  evidently  a  license  only 
for  lying,  cheating,  and  bullying — not  for  precipi- 
tating the  world  war.  Dewey  was  of  such  stuff 
that  he  would  have  fought  his  ships  to  the  last 
and  then  gone  down  with  his  flag  flying.  But 
Great  Britain  had  in  Chichester  (then  a  captain) 
a  man  equally  fit  for  the  emergency.  Diedrichs 
sought  to  win  him  over  to  measures  offensive  to 
the  American;  and  sounded  him  cautiously. 

''What  would  you  do,"  asked  the  German,  "if 
I  attacked  the  Americans?" 

"No  one  knows — excepting  Admiral  Dewey — 
and  myself,"  was  the  prompt  and  decisive  an- 
swer of  this  grand  old  sea  dog. 

And  then  he  ordered  his  ship  to  be  so  moored 
that  any  shot  at  Dewey  would  hit  first  a  ship  fly- 
ing the  White  Ensign  of  Great  Britain — and  this 


Admiral  Chichester  247 

act  was  cheered  in  England  for  it  symbolized  the 
broad  fact  that  it  is  the  English-speaking  race  that 
has  created  what  is  now  talked  of  as  the  Freedom 
of  the  Seas.  England  and  America  have  for  a 
century  practically  given  joint  support  to  this 
doctrine  and  our  policy  in  the  future  should  be 
to  continue  a  practice  that  has  raised  no  protests, 
excepting  from  pirates  and  a  predatory  Prussian 
dynasty. 

Wilhelm  did  us  an  unfriendly  act  in  1898;  for 
when  war  was  declared  against  Spain  few  Ameri- 
cans knew  what  the  Philippines  were,  much  less 
their  geographical  position  or  colonial  importance. 
We  would  probably  have  handed  them  Over  to 
some  self-styled  native  government,  or,  more 
wisely,  to  Japan.  But  the  tactless  behaviour  of 
Wilhelm  and  his  Diedrichs  compelled  Congress  to 
plunge  this  country  into  a  career  of  colonization 
which  so  far  has  not  won  for  us  the  respect  of  the 
natives  nor  a  return  at  all  commensurate  with  the 
efforts  expended.  Germany  did  get  the  Carolines, 
which  should  have  come  to  us  as  part  of  the  Span- 
ish debacle;  and  so,  spite  of  failure  in  the  main 
object,  Wilhelm  saved  his  face,  advertised  the 
increase  of  his  possessions  in  the  Pacific,  and 
promoted  Diedrichs.  Shortly  before  his  death 
Admiral  Dewey  authorized  a  life  of  himself  in 


248      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

which  the  story  of  Manila  Bay  is  told  in  simple, 
sailorly  manner — the  same  story  of  which  here  I 
have  given  but  the  bare  outline.  Then,  of  course, 
Diedrichs  was  ordered  to  publish  his  version, 
which  I  read  with  no  surprise  for  it  merely  denied 
each  Dewey  statement  seriatim  and  proved  con- 
clusively, so  far  as  the  official  press  of  Germany  is 
concerned,  that  throughout  the  Spanish  War,  and 
particularly  at  Manila,  America  had  no  warmer 
friend  than  the  Kaiser ! 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

Wilhelm    Visits    Palestine — Proclaims    himself    the 

Protector  of   Christian  and   Moslem — The 

Boer  War — Prince  Henry  Visits  America 

TJAVING  now  made  belligerent  faces  at  Eng- 
land in  1896,  at  the  ''Yellow  Peril"  in  1897, 
and  at  Uncle  Sam  in  1898,  it  was  now  the  turn  of 
France;  and  so  in  the  latter  part  of  this  year  the 
Kaiser  made  a  second  visit  to  the  Sultan's  Empire, 
dressed  himself  in  something  intended  to  look  like 
a  crusader,  and  climbed  the  Mount  of  Olives. 
Here  let  us  pause  in  hope  of  seeing  the  most  pious 
of  Lutherans  fall  upon  his  knees  and  silently  medi- 
tate on  the  majesty  of  God  and  the  nothingness 
of  earthly  power.  But  otherwise  was  the  Kaiser 
programme;  for  on  the  spot  sacred  to  the  founder 
of  Christianity  there  now  stood  one  who  serenely 
challenged  comparison  with  Jesus  of  Naszareth. 
Three  times  during  his  reign  did  Wilhelm  visit 
the  Sultan's  land  and  three  times  also  that  of  the 
Pope  in  Rome.  With  what  words  he  edified  the 

249 


250      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

successor  of  St.  Peter  I  know  not  but  we  do  know 
that  he  secured  the  Catholic  vote  of  Germany  for 
his  military  programme.  In  the  land  of  the  Ca- 
liphs his  visits  were  equally  fruitful — for  a  short 
while.  Already  in  1889  he  had  paid  formal  visit 
to  the  Sultan  in  Constantinople  and  laid  the 
foundation  for  such  concessions  to  German  com- 
merce and  railway  construction  as  must  have 
stirred  any  less  pacific  power  than  that  of  Queen 
Victoria.  In  the  winter  of  1898-9  the  Kaiser 
earned  still  more  laurels  in  his  r61e  of  commercial 
traveller  by  loudly  proclaiming,  throughout  the 
Mahometan  world,  that  henceforth,  Frajnce  was 
deposed  from  her  hereditary  protectorate  over 
Christians  in  the  near  East  and  that  her  place  was 
to  be  filled — not  by  Russia  or  England — but  by 
the  parvenu  Prussianized  Empire!  In  1899  came 
the  Boer  War;  and  with  it  such  ferocious  and  uni- 
versal attacks  upon  England  by  German  patriotic 
societies  and  inspired  newspapers  that  once  more 
we  heard  the  rattling  of  an  Imperial  sabre.  Those 
days  were  as  dark  for  England  as  were  with  us  the 
first  three  years  of  our  Civil  War  when,  to  the  dread 
of  Washington  falling  into  the  hands  of  Lee,  there 
was  added  the  fear  of  a  foreign  intervention.  In 
every  German  town  Boer  committees  were  formed 
who  organized  celebrations  whenever  news  came 


Boer  War  251 

of  a  British  failure  and  who  paraded  jubilantly 
for  every  Boer  success.  It  looked  from  day  to  day 
more  warlike ;  and  had  the  Kaiser  then  proclaimed 
Der  Tag  it  would  indeed  have  been  a  popular  one. 
The  delegates  of  the  insurgent  Boer  republic  were 
received  throughout  the  Fatherland  with  demon- 
strations of  noisy  joy;  and  one  Boer  General  told 
me  that  they  were  counting  confidently  upon  the 
Kaiser's  assistance  because  he  had  promised  this 
through  one  of  his  agents — a  German  officer. 
Paranoia  is  a  species  of  chronic  unrest,  neuro- 
psychopathic  in  its  nature  and  marked  by  sudden 
desires  reversed  with  equal  suddenness.  The  mad 
Ludwig  of  Bavaria  answered  to  this  prognosis;  and 
so  did  Wilhelm  II.  but  in  a  form  less  violent  or  more 
carefully  concealed.  Only  on  this  hypothesis  can 
I  explain  his  violent  changes  from  one  mood  to 
another.  In  the  Boer  War  he  had  encouraged  the 
mental  attitude  calculated  to  make  war  against 
England  popular  and  then,  without  any  warning, 
he  suddenly  decided  that  he  would  not  receive  the 
envoys  from  Kruger,  but  on  the  contrary  soon 
afterwards  boasted  of  having  helped  his  grand- 
mother to  suppress  that  insurrection.  It  is  dis- 
concerting to  one  who  has  worked  historically 
through  the  years  of  Bismarck,  Moltke,  and 
Wilhelm  I.  to  suddenly  cease  looking  for  logical 


252      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

sequence  in  the  three  decades  of  this  Wilhelm.  But 
unless  we  recognize  at  each  step  the  wobbling  will 
power  of  one  subject  to  mental  disease  we  waste 
much  time — for  we  seek  not  the  fruits  of  consist- 
ency on  trees  rooted  in  paranoia. 

I  had  the  honour  of  escorting  the  Kaiser  on  his 
first  visit  to  the  Sultan,  when  he  paused  in  Athens 
in  order  to  link  together  German  and  Hellenic 
interests  through  a  marriage  of  his  sister  with  the 
late  unsatisfactory  King  of  Greece.  It  was  to  me 
very  interesting;  for  while  the  newspaper  world 
saw  in  this  excursion  merely  the  gratification  of 
Imperial  curiosity,  those  in  the  suite  of  the  Kaiser 
had  very  clear  visions  of  a  German  Railway  that 
would  link  Berlin  with  Bagdad,  and  a  German  in- 
fluence over  the  military  education  of  Turkey  that 
would  ultimately  facilitate  operations  against  the 
back  door  of  India.  Other  nations  had  hitherto 
limited  their  intimacy  with  Turkey  to  an  occa- 
sional intervention  evoked  by  broken  treaties  or 
massacred  Christians;  but  Wilhelm  II.  disregarded 
all  diplomatic  precedents  by  noisily  slapping  the 
somnolent  Sultan  on  the  back;  jovially  claiming 
him  as  a  dear  old  pal ;  and  proving  to  him  in  con- 
clusive manner  that  France  was  now  dead,  Eng- 
land moribund,  and  only  the  Hohenzollern  counted 
in  matters  of  world  Empire.  Who  could  resist 


The  Sultan  253 

Wilhelm  when  in  jovial  mood,  and  what  Viziers 
could  resist  Wilhelm 's  tall  soldierly  Prussian 
guardsmen  and  more  particularly  the  financial  and 
technical  experts  who  called  after  dark  and  made 
costly  presents  and  exchanged  commercial  promises 
and  smoked  nargilehs  until  they  saw  visions  of  the 
Far  East,  and  Stambul  once  more  the  great  bazaar 
of  the  world  thanks  to  a  new  route  to  Bombay  and 
Delhi — all  Turkish  under  the  protectorate  of  a 
Prussian  Kaiser! 

India  has  seventy-five  millions  of  Mahometans 
and  on  each  visit  to  the  Sultan's  domains  Wilhelm 
emphasized  his  desire  to  befriend  the  faithful,  not 
merely  on  the  Bosphorus  and  Euphrates  but  more 
particularly  on  the  Indus  and  the  upper  reaches 
of  the  Ganges.  By  this  he  hoped  to  weaken  not 
merely  the  British  hold  on  India  but  France's 
prestige  in  Northern  Africa.  He  succeeded  in 
everything — at  first!  His  primary  impulses  were 
violent  and  loudly  applauded  at  home,  but  1914 
disclosed  the  pitiful  results  of  a  policy  bewildering 
in  the  multiplicity  of  its  aims  and  disconcerting 
by  reason  of  the  contradictory  character  of  their 
author.  Wilhelm  achieved  little  in  the  Mahome- 
tan world  much  as  he  conspired  to  stir  a  holy  war 
against  both  France  and  England.  He  had  come 
even  to  Morocco  in  1906  for  the  purpose  of  dazzling 


254      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

the  market-place  of  Tangiers  by  words  of  comfort. 
All — all  in  vain!  And  even  Russia,  for  whose 
rulers  he  had  to  me  professed  undying  loyalty — 
this  same  Russia  drifted  slowly  but  steadily  away 
to  the  arms  of  la  belle  France  in  spite  of  the  loud 
but  less  interesting  cries  from  the  nymphs  of  the 
Spree  and  Havel. 

The  Boer  War  may  have  caused  another  change 
in  Wilhelm,  for  soon  afterwards  he  made  desperate 
and  most  conspicuous  effort  to  advertise  that 
mythical  love  which  he  claimed  had  always  existed 
between  America  and  the  land  of  Frederick  the 
Great.  He  may  have  been  urged  to  this  by  noting 
that  many  Americans  had  joined  the  British  army 
during  the  Boer  War  and  that,  apart  from  Ger- 
mans and  Roman  Catholic  Irish,  the  people  of  the 
United  States  were  in  no  mood  to  see  England 
humiliated — least  of  all  by  a  Kaiser  who  had 
shown  his  true  disposition  during  the  Spanish 
War.  So  Wilhelm  staged  a  grand  theatrical  demon- 
stration that  should  prove  to  all  the  world  that 
Diedrichs  and  Manila  Bay  were  forgotten  and  that 
now  he  felt  for  America  the  same  affection  that  he 
had  so  warmly  voiced  for  the  Mahometan  millions 
of  the  older  world. 

He  sent  his  brother  Henry  as  his  personal 
ambassador;  and  a  syndicate  of  American  mer- 


Prince  Henry  255 

chant  princes  paid  the  bills  incidental  to  railway 
excursions  and  costly  banquets.  The  Emperor 
had  not  been  invited — nor  his  representative — 
but  every  effort  was  made  in  the  Berlin  press  to 
see  in  this  reception  by  Americans  that  which  they 
desired  to  see — namely  a  close  alliance  between 
Washington  and  Berlin  and  corresponding  isola- 
tion of  England.  To  this  end  Prince  Henry  had 
brought  with  him  a  big  box  filled  with  Prussian 
medals  which  he  had  been  ordered  to  pin  on  the 
coats  of  such  as  had  distinguished  themselves  by 
services  to  the  cause  of  Deutschthum.  But  with  the 
exception  of  Germans,  no  one  here  cared  for  such 
distinction,  least  of  all  the  captains  of  industry 
who  had  spent  most  generously  on  committees  of 
entertainment.  It  was  to  Prince  Henry  a  mortify- 
ing experience  when  he  was  finally  compelled  to 
realize  that  Americans  of  German  descent  did  not 
necessarily  recognize  the  Kaiser  as  their  Lord — 
on  the  contrary  they  usually  insisted  on  being 
American  in  spirit  no  less  than  in  formal  allegiance, 
and  they  rejected  contemptuously  the  pretensions 
of  German  consuls  who  desired  to  organize  them 
after  Prussian  fashion.  Prince  Henry  had  to 
return  home  with  a  heavy  heart  and  an  equally 
heavy  chest  of  decorations.  He  had  seen  much  of 
life  in  the  Far  East  and  as  a  sailor  had  a  better 


256      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

insight  into  human  nature  than  his  irregularly 
built  brother.  He  could  see  that  the  courtesy  of 
Americans  in  1902  was  little  more  than  the  morbid 
curiosity  of  a  mercantile  community  to  boast  of 
having  shaken  hands  with  an  Emperor's  brother. 
The  Kaiser  sent  over  a  statue  of  Frederick  the 
Great  and  a  job  lot  of  casts  representing  mythical 
German  heroes.  He  later  encouraged  an  inter- 
change of  professors  and  flattered  inordinately 
those  who  came  to  him  from  our  side.  American 
universities  blossomed  out  in  a  chain  of  societies 
united  in  the  bonds  of  Kultur  made  in  Germany, 
and  systematic  agitation  resulted  in  forcing  for- 
ward the  language  of  the  Kaiser  so  prominently  as 
to  not  merely  eclipse  temporarily  that  of  Racine 
and  Corneille  but  to  raise  in  the  mind  of  Gross- 
deutschland  the  vision  of  a  North  America  in  which 
all  tongues  would  yield  before  that  of  the  prospec- 
tive world  conqueror. 

But  meanwhile  Wilhelm  noted  angrily  that  while 
his  brother  Henry  was  winning  all  hearts  by  an 
affable  manner  and  perfect  command  of  the  Eng- 
lish language,  the  really  important  figures  in 
American  official  life  were  conspicuous  by  their 
absence  and  of  these  figures  no  one  was  so  con- 
spicuously absent  as  the  Admiral  of  the  American 
Navy,  the  illustrious  George  Dewey. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

Wilhelm  II.  and  Alsace-Lorraine — Speech  in  Metz — 
Treatment  of  Lord  Roberts  at  the  Kaiser- 
Manoeuvres 

\\  /HEN  I  say  that  the  popularity  of  Wilhelm 
II.  in  Prussia  was  owing  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  essentially  of  the  Baltic  type  of  Germany* 
I  have  also  explained  how  it  happened  that  the 
talent  of  diplomacy  or  tactfulness  was  largely 
lacking  in  his  impulsive  nature.  He  who  grossly 
offended  American  feelings  in  1898,  apologized 
even  more  grossly  in  his  efforts  to  win  back  our 
confidence  through  the  purchase  of  a  yacht  and 
the  distribution  of  cheap  decorations.  In  England 
he  rushed  with  equal  violence  from  unnecessary 
effusive  intimacy  in  one  year  to  a  warlike  chal- 
lenge in  the  very  next.  With  France  his  behaviour 
showed  the  same  unstatesmanlike  fickleness — 
leading  him  at  one  moment  to  pay  marked  honour 
to  some  Frenchman  on  a  mission,  and  at  the  very 
next  to  sign  a  paper  whose  effect  was  to  embitter 
17  257 


258      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

even  more  the  relations  of  Alsace-Lorraine  and 
her  military  taskmaster. 

The  grand  Kaiser-Manoeuvres  held  about  Metz, 
a  year  or  so  before  the  Kiel  Canal  opening,  made 
me  for  the  first  time  realize  the  extent  to  which  a 
much  be-flattered  autocrat  can  deceive  himself 
regarding  the  real  things  about  him.  He  had  been 
made  to  believe  that  Alsace-Lorraine  was  a 
triumph  of  Prussian  assimilation;  when  he  heard 
of  a  local  disturbance  in  his  conquered  territory  his 
police  agents  assured  him  that  this  was  merely  the 
work  of  a  few  agitators  instigated  by  politicians  of 
Paris.  In  order  to  advertize  the  alleged  Prussian- 
ization  of  these  most  French  of  provinces  he  pur- 
chased a  countryseat  near  Metz;  and,  in  that 
historic  city,  sought  to  make  Frenchmen  forget 
Custine,  Ambroise  Thomas,  Paul  Verlaine,  and  the 
Marechal  Ney — by  rearing  dreary  reminders  of 
Hohenzollern  dominion.  As  well  seek  to  eradicate 
the  memory  of  Calvin  in  Geneva  by  planting  her 
beautiful  embankments  with  a  row  of  popes. 
Already  Metz  had  been  compelled  to  see  two 
Prussian  Kaisers  planted  in  their  midst  on  pom- 
pous pedestals,  and  now  a  third  was  to  be  reared  in 
honour  of  another  Hohenzollern  who  was  conspicu- 
ous even  amongst  Brandenburgers  for  brutality  in 
his  own  family  and  cruelty  towards  the  enemy. 


Alsace-Lorraine  259 

Never  did  God  offer  to  any  monarch  so  full  an 
opportunity  for  the  display  of  generosity.  Never 
had  Wilhelm  a  better  chance  for  undoing  some  of 
the  mischief  done  during  the  past  forty  years  of 
misgovernment  on  French  soil.  He  was  on  a  battle- 
field drenched  by  the  blood  of  thousands  who  had 
here  vainly  struggled  to  stem  the  tide  of  Hun 
irruption  in  1870;  he  had  in  his  suite  many  guests 
of  other  countries  than  his  own,  and  the  military 
operations  were  all  in  sight  of  the  French  frontier. 
Today  we  need  to  be  reminded  that  some  twenty 
years  ago  many  in  France  were  inclined  to  accept 
the  Prussian  Yoke  as  a  fact,  very  real  however 
disagreeable.  These  loved  their  national  traditions 
none  the  less,  but  in  the  face  of  dwindling  birth- 
rate at  home  and  doubling  of  population  beyond 
the  Rhine  they  saw  little  hope  in  the  future  save 
as  one  more  province  of  the  new  Hohenzollern 
Empire.  How  often  have  I  heard,  in  Paris  even, 
expressions  of  admiration  for  Wilhelm  when  con- 
trasting the  powerful  commercial  strides  of  his 
country  with  the  lamentably  uncertain  movements 
of  their  successive  cabinets,  half  socialist,  half 
demagogue,  that  appeared  bent  upon  finishing  by 
the  ballot  box  what  had  been  but  half  accomplished 
by  the  treaty  of  Frankfort.  The  praise  of  Wilhelm 
was  the  cry  of  a  people  who  recalled  the  glories  of  a 


260      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Napoleonic  Empire  and  saw  of  the  Kaiser  only  the 
outward  power.  They  envied  Germany  her  Kaiser ! 
They  would  have  worshipped  him  had  he  been  of 
their  blood.  But  that  was  long  ago ! 

So  far  from  profiting  by  his  opportunities  Wil- 
helm,  on  the  contrary,  made  the  Metz  manoeuvres 
an  occasion  for  administering  to  every  Frenchman 
such  a  slap  in  the  face  as  must  have  smarted  upon 
the  cheeks  of  the  least  patriotic  of  pacifists.  He 
called  about  him  all  the  notables  of  the  neighbour- 
hood that  they  might  listen  whilst  he  made  an 
oration  magnifying  the  virtues  of  his  Uncle  Fried- 
rich  Karl.  As  guest  of  the  Kaiser  I  had  been 
bidden  to  seats  reserved  for  the  mighty  but  for 
obvious  reasons  I  preferred  to  mix  in  the  French 
audience  that  stood  about  the  base  of  the  statue 
and  thus  feel  at  first  hand  the  effect  of  the  Kaiser's 
oratory. 

His  voice  was  harsh — almost  hissing — and  he 
jerked  out  his  words  with  the  intenseness  of  one 
who  is  condensing  a  momentous  message — a  piti- 
less judge  passing  sentence  upon  a  people  that  has 
incurred  his  wrath.  I  listened  keenly  and  with  in- 
creasing wonder.  The  ravings  of  a  madman  could 
not  have  sounded  more  strangely.  Had  he  ad- 
dressed his  French  subjects  in  French  the  blow 
would  have  been  hard;  but  he  chose  the  rasping 


French  Sentiment  261 

nasal  snarl  that  marks  the  Prussian  officer  scolding 
his  recruits  in  a  Potsdam  garrison  and,  in  the 
tongue  of  their  conqueror,  he  truculently  vaunted 
the  glories  of  Germany  and  reminded  them  that 
he  was  now  their  master. 

"Germans  you  are — "  screeched  he  with  menac- 
ing look — "Germans  have  you  always  been  and 
Germans  shall  you  be  for  ever,  so  help  me  God  and 
—my  good  sword!" 

This  was  his  peroration,  if  my  memory  serves, 
and  while  no  loud  sounds  were  uttered  at  the  close 
of  this  horrible  speech,  on  all  sides  of  me  men 
looked  meaningly  at  one  another;  shoulders  were 
significantly  shrugged  and  the  bolder  ones  courted 
police  denunciation  by  whispering  meditatively — 
" Nous  verrons  ca!"  and  similar  ejaculations — 
oracular  though  not  complimentary. 

We  must  praise  God  for  the  blindness  of  Wil- 
helm  in  matters  diplomatic;  for,  when  we  consider 
the  extent  to  which  England  and  France,  no  less 
than  these  United  States,  were  drugged  by  the 
drowsy  doctrines  of  pacifism,  it  required  only  time 
and  opportunity  for  Prussian  tactlessness  to  rouse 
the  civilized  world  from  the  spell  put  upon  them 
by  such  slogans  as  "Peace  Without  Victory"  and 
"Too  proud  to  fight." 

In  England,  Lord  Roberts  recognized  the  preda- 


262      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

tory  policy  of  Wilhelm  and  urged  preparedness  so 
strongly  that  the  Government  of  the  day  sought  to 
silence  him  much  as  President  Wilson  and  his 
colourless  Cabinet  have  employed  the  political 
boycott  against  conspicuous  Americans  who  have 
said  aloud  what  the  discreet  say  to  themselves. 
Lord  Roberts  was  guest  of  the  Kaiser  at  the  grand 
manoeuvres  shortly  before  the  Kiel  opening.  He 
was  not  only  the  most  important  soldier  in  British 
service  but  with  his  forty  years  of  war  practice  in 
India,  represented  a  volume  of  military  experience 
rare  at  that  time.  The  Emperor  knew  this,  and 
he  knew  also  that  the  victor  of  Kandahar  fluent  as 
he  was  in  dozens  of  tongues  beyond  the  Balkans, 
knew  neither  French  nor  German.  Moreover  it 
was  of  importance  that  the  English  commander- 
in-chief  should  return  home  with  much  military 
glamour  but  little  information.  Consequently  the 
Kaiser  selected  as  official  guide  and  aide-de-camps 
throughout  the  days  of  war  simulation  one  of  the 
many  empty-headed  cavalry  subalterns  who  are 
tolerated  in  a  regiment  of  the  Guards  because  they 
are  noble  and  rich  and  can  glitter  on  court  occa- 
sions. This  young  lieutenant  knew  only  a  few 
words  of  elementary  English  and  had  apparently 
orders  to  steer  Lord  Roberts  away  from  every  part 
of  the  field  where  happened  the  things  most  in- 


Lord  Roberts  263 

teresting  to  a  soldier.  It  was  a  delicate  situation 
for  the  British  guest  who  naturally  felt  compelled 
to  obey  the  suggestions  of  one  selected  by  his 
Imperial  host.  With  me  no  such  obligation  existed, 
and  I  am  happy  to  think  that  I  earned  the  warmly 
expressed  gratitude  of  this  beloved  warrior  by 
stepping  between  him  and  his  wilfully  ignorant 
guide  and  arranging  matters  so  that  henceforth 
it  was  Lord  Roberts  who  ruled  the  situation  and 
not  his  obtrusive  Prussian.  My  part  was  easy, 
for  I  had  a  warm  friend  in  the  late  General  Fuku- 
shima,  then  a  Major  in  the  Japanese  Army,  and 
military  attache.  With  Fukushima  I  made  a 
treaty  by  which  henceforth  Lord  Roberts  missed 
nothing  of  interest — for  the  Japanese  Major  be- 
came his  beacon  and  by  this  light  Lord  Roberts 
never  moved  in  vain — nor  myself  either.  This 
meddling  of  mine  was  no  doubt  reported  to  the 
Commander  of  the  army  corps  if  not  to  the  Kaiser 
himself;  but  neither  could  then  have  interfered 
without  provoking  on  my  part  such  a  public 
protest  as  would  have  betrayed  to  the  world  the 
manifest  purpose  of  Wilhelm  to  shower  empty 
compliments  on  'an  illustrious  British  General 
while  at  the  same  time  preventing  him  from  seeing 
anything  of  interest. 
At  a  later  date  the  Emperor  attempted  to  ex- 


264      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

tenuate  the  enormity  of  his  behaviour  towards  the 
gallant  Briton  by  handing  him  some  ribbon  or 
medal,  but  it  came  too  late.  Lord  Roberts  could 
not  mistake  the  disingenuousness  that  lurked  be- 
hind the  genial  words  of  his  Imperial  host — much 
less  could  he  fail  to  profit  by  an  insight  into  a  mili- 
tary machine  terrible  by  reason  of  its  huge  pro- 
portions and  more  terrible  still  because  of  the 
spirit  animating  its  war  lord. 


EPILOGUE 

Wilhelm — League  of  Nations — Freedom  of  the  Seas — 
Moral — Finis 

'"TOWARDS  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
*  the  incomparable  historian  of  Roman  glory 
and  decline  paused  in  his  great  work  in  order  to 
indulge  in  that  most  elusive  luxury — prophecy. 
He  had  been  engaged  in  tracing  the  career  of  a 
great  people  through  centuries  of  varying  fortune; 
he  was  weary  of  slaughter  and  fondly  looked  for- 
ward to  a  world  in  which  wars  would  be  humanely 
conducted,  fewer  in  number,  or  even  wholly  sup- 
pressed. He  wrote  at  the  close  of  a  century  in 
which  soldiering  had  been  the  chronic  occupation 
of  Christian  states  and  he  was  convinced  that  the 
time  had  arrived  for  such  a  league  of  nations  as 
would  effectually  control  the  savage  impulses  of 
any  prospective  Genseric,  Alaric,  or  Attila.  He 
referred  particularly  to  the  royal  philosopher  who 
sat  upon  the  throne  of  Prussia  and  a  blue  stocking 
Czarina  whose  court  on  the  Neva  suggested  the 

265 


266      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Happy  Valley  of  Rasselas  not  to  say  the  Groves  of 
Academe.  Gibbon  reviewed  the  world  of  his  day 
and  saw  with  joy  the  noble  triumphs  of  art,  litera- 
ture, and  science.  He  saw  religious  persecution 
waning  and  monarchy  daily  assuming  forms  more 
in  harmony  with  popular  aspiration.  The  Huns 
and  Vandals,  thought  he,  had  been  eliminated 
from  their  ancient  habitats  or  weaned  from  their 
pristine  propensities;  and  the  forests  whence  had 
rushed  the  hungry  hordes  who  overran  the  Europe 
of  fifteen  centuries  ago  had  given  place  to  cultiva- 
ted farms,  smiling  villages,  and  centers  of  Kultur. 
The  skin-clad  chief  had  been  replaced  by  a  Fred- 
erick the  Great — the  Cossack  raider  by  a  Cather- 
ine Romanov.  Whence  then  could  ever  come 
another  menace  to  civilized  Europe?  Surely  not 
from  Berlin  or  the  now  enlightened  Empire  of 
Russia!  The  great  historian  cast  his  gaze  east- 
ward to  the  plains  of  Central  Asia — even  to  the 
valley  of  the  Yangtse — and  there  too  he  found 
comfort  in  the  reflection  that  Europe  had  a  bul- 
wark too  strong  for  any  future  Tamerlane  or 
Genghis. 

In  short  the  dream  of  Gibbon  was  the  dream  of 
Woodrow  Wilson — as  it  has  been  the  dream  of 
every  dreamer  after  every  great  period  of  war. 
Man  becomes  a  pacifist  through  the  security  which 


Pacifism  of  Gibbon  267 

his  fighting  fathers  have  purchased.  We  would 
gladly  forget  the  fighting  and  fondly  hope  that  our 
possessions  are  forever  safe.  The  age  of  Gibbon 
was  in  Europe  and  North  America  remarkable 
for  the  number  of  great  men  who  favoured  the  idea 
of  a  world  peace.  We  had  our  Washington,  our 
Hamilton,  our  Franklin;  and  our  seven-year  war 
of  Independence  so  far  from  making  us  quarrel- 
some had  on  the  contrary  led  us  to  abolish  every 
military  safeguard  the  moment  a  truce  had  been 
declared. 

In  France  Rousseau  and  Voltaire  were  but  a 
fraction  of  the  many  brilliant  writers  who  regarded 
war  as  a  relic  of  barbarism,  to  be  scouted  by  philo- 
sophers and  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  poisoned 
daggers,  thumb  screws,  and  the  "King's  touch." 
In  England,  David  Hume,  Joseph  Priestly,  Dr. 
Johnson,  Oliver  Goldsmith — who  can  name  the 
galaxy  of  learning,  wit,  and  social  reform  for  which 
that  age  is  justly  famous.  It  was  axiomatic  then 
that  every  philosopher  was  an  enemy  to  war; 
every  writer  believed  in  a  league  of  peace.  The 
pacifism  that  ruled  the  world  just  before  the  fall  of 
the  Bastille  is  no  less  remarkable  than  the  spread 
of  the  same  disease  in  the  years  which  preceded 
the  raid  of  1 9 1 4.  Indeed,  were  it  worth  while  many 
theses  could  be  compiled  in  order  to  prove  that 


268      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

nearly  every  great  war  has  been  preceded,  if  not  pro- 
voked, by  an  all  but  universal  sense  of  security ;  and 
a  corresponding  indisposition  to  undergo  the  fatigue 
and  danger  of  war.  These  examples  need  not  be 
limited  to  any  one  country,  continent  or  period — 
the  poisonous  character  of  pacifism  can  be  studied 
under  mandarins  in  China  and  Rajahs  in  India 
no  less  than  under  a  Thomas  Jefferson  or  a  William 
Jennings  Bryan.  The  Empire  of  the  Caesars  owed 
its  fall  to  the  pacifistic  propaganda  of  Christian 
socialists  quite  as  much  as  to  any  other  cause;  and 
if  these  United  States  become  some  day  a  province 
of  Prussia  the  future  historian  will  say  once  more 
that  no  nation  deserves  independence  when  it 
refuses  to  fight  in  defence  of  its  flag. 

The  Great  War  has  closed  by  another  defeat  of 
the  Huns  and  Vandals — another  retreat  to  their 
prolific  haunts  beyond  the  Rhine.  This  war  has 
cost  more  in  blood  and  treasure  than  previous  wars ; 
but  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Germany 
will  not  renew  hostilities  so  soon  as  she  has  re- 
paired the  damage  done  to  her  own  people  and 
property.  Whoever  preaches  that  this  is  the  last 
of  the  Hun  raids  may  possess  the  book  learning  of 
a  Gibbon  but  book  learning  alone  is  not  enough 
in  such  a  field.  I  have  had  rare  opportunities  of 
looking  the  Hun  between  the  eyes  in  every  military 


How  America  was  Saved      269 

district  along  the  Baltic  and  in  the  spongy  forests 
of  the  upper  Spree;  and,  as  the  result  of  many 
years  dedicated  to  a  species  of  research  unknown 
to  those  whose  frontiers  are  their  shelves  of  books, 
I  bring  away  the  feeling  that  the  Prussian  of  today 
is  the  same  as  the  Vandal  who  sacked  and  massa- 
cred a  thousand  years  ago.  The  past  raids  of  Ger- 
manic hordes  were  usually  preceded  by  periods  of 
pacifism  in  Rome  or  Constantinople,  just  as  the 
insulting  behaviour  of  Wilhelm  to  Uncle  Sam  was 
provoked  by  the  pacifism  that  ruled  in  Washing- 
ton. Wilhelm  was  checked  in  his  designs  upon 
New  York  by  the  courage  and  tenacity  with  which 
the  brave  men  of  France  and  England  blocked  his 
path  to  Calais  and  London.  For  three  years  the 
manhood  of  civilized  Europe  struggled  and  died; 
and  by  that  struggle  America  was  saved.  For- 
tunately for  us  the  Kaiser  himself  quickened  our 
conscience  and  stirred  our  sense  of  shame  not 
merely  by  insulting  our  Ambassador,  but  by 
flaunting  German  submarines  in  American  waters 
and  murdering  on  the  high  seas  innocent  passengers 
travelling  under  the  sanction  of  international  law. 
This  war  is  but  one  in  a  chain  of  wars  that  com- 
menced when  the  first  German  saw  that  his  neigh- 
bour had  something.  Wilhelm  might  have  died  in 
the  odour  of  pacifism  if  not  sanctity  had  he  not 


270     Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

been  tempted  beyond  his  powers  by  the  sight  of 
neighbouring  states  rich  in  goods  but  poor  in  war 
material.  Had  England  been  well  armed  on  land 
and  Belgium  so  well  prepared  as  republican 
Switzerland,  think  you  that  Wilhelm  would  have 
ventured  upon  his  desperate  raid  ?  And  should  the 
day  arrive  when  Great  Britain  shall  permit  Ger- 
many to  cross  the  ocean  with  impunity — would 
not  the  Hun  occupy  our  commercial  centres  until 
she  had  extracted  the  last  dollar? 

Our  politicians  now  use  nebulous  phrases  like 
Freedom  of  the  Seas,  League  of  Nations,  Rights  of 
Self -Determination,  etc.,  because  they  are  but  too 
eager  to  accept  any  solution  rather  than  the  simple, 
although  less  agreeable,  one  of  maintaining  an 
adequate  military  force  all  the  time.  A  League  of 
Nations  means  nothing  but  material  for  college 
debating  societies.  It  has  been  tried  for  thousands 
of  years  and  works  well  only  when  all  the  world 
practises  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  Lamb 
nestles  against  the  jaws  of  the  Lion.  Germany 
yearns  for  leagues  of  nations — she  yearns  more  still 
for  seas  on  which  she  may  with  freedom  once  more 
fly  her  flag  of  destruction.  The  predatory  state 
that  prepares  its  forces  in  secret  will  be  the  chief 
beneficiary  of  this  humanitarian  scheme  and  the 
only  enemy  she  dreads  is  the  ocean  policeman  John 


The  Hun  in  Manhattan       271 

Bull.  Our  liberty  in  the  seven  seas  has  been 
threatened  by  none  save  the  galleys  of  the  Hun. 
If  we  wish  to  make  freedom  on  the  high  seas  even 
more  secure,  we  have  but  to  unite  our  forces  with 
those  of  England.  Leagues  of  nations  cannot 
make  people  wise  or  courageous;  and  should  a 
league  now  be  formed  it  would  not  prevent  the 
demobilization  of  our  army  or  provide  us  with  a 
far-sighted  Congress.  The  Hun  gives  no  long 
notice  when  about  to  strike  and  after  our  cities 
shall  have  been  sacked  it  will  be  cold  comfort  to 
learn  that  a  League  of  Nations  would  have  come 
to  our  assistance  if  we  had  only  been  patient — for 
a  year  or  two.  Let  us  honour  the  peacemakers; 
let  us  labour  for  brotherhood  amongst  nations;  let 
us  rear  churches  to  him  who  preached  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  and  let  us  even  believe  that  man 
is  improving  in  some  respects  if  not  all.  But  the 
man  who  loves  his  country  should  feel  that  the 
first  duty  of  Government  is  to  make  that  country 
safe  from  attack.  In  the  infinite  changes  that  have 
occurred  throughout  past  ages,  governments  have 
had  to  adapt  themselves  to  ever-shifting  condi- 
tions; and  we  call  those  men  statesmen  who  have 
most  quickly  made  the  alliances  and  combina- 
tions necessary  for  a  definite  purpose  at  a  definite 
crisis. 


272      Prussianism  and  Pacifism 

Our  American  bosom  swells  with  pardonable 
pride  when  learning  that  the  political  pundits  of 
France  rise  respectfully  and  bow  with  humility 
before  the  scholarly  rhetoric  of  our  autodidactic 
president.  We  have  for  a  century  gloried  in  the 
memory  of  Benjamin  Franklin  receiving  honours 
from  the  French  Academy;  but  today  not  only  does 
the  world  of  science  and  art  make  ovation  to 
Woodrow  Wilson  but  before  him  stand  bareheaded 
the  President  of  France  to  say  nothing  of  that 
venerable  but  valiant  protagonist — the  beloved 
Clemenceau. 

Is  it  strange  if  Americans  feel  the  reaction  from 
this  memorable  moment  ?  What  wonder  that  men 
worship  the  wisdom  of  one  whose  words  have 
apparently  conquered  the  understanding  of  Eu- 
ropean statesmen  and  made  a  revolution  in  public 
sentiment  throughout  the  world!  We  are  a  busy 
people  and  harassed  by  endless  problems.  We 
have  no  time  to  read  history.  Intellectually  we 
feel  that  "sufficient  unto  the  day"  is  the  news- 
paper thereof.  We  are  glad  to  hear  that  the  old 
world  applauds  with  courtesy  when  an  American 
rhetorician  emits  platitudes  which  would  excite 
smiles  if  offered  by  other  than  the  nation's  guest. 
Leagues  of  nations  have  been  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world  and  they  have  always  been  failures, 


Honors  for  Wilson  273 

particularly  when  directed  by  a  pacifist.  No  one 
knows  this  better  than  the  old-world  scholars  who 
clapped  when  Wilson  spoke.  Leagues  of  nations 
are  old  as  pacifism,  teetotalism,  bolshevikism, 
feminism,  and  all  the  other  isms  with  which  we  are 
plagued  by  so-called  humanitarians.  All  that  they 
teach  has  been  anticipated  by  many  centuries,  and 
all  we  need  if  we  would  once  more  win  back  our 
national  health,  is  to  resolve  never  to  open  a 
modern  book  until  we  had  first  absorbed  the  wis- 
dom buried  in  the  pages  of  Plutarch,  Aristophanes, 
Herodotus — and  many  more  who  lived  before  the 
discovery  of  America. 

Whether  Wilhelm  be  ever  called  back  to  Berlin 
as  was  his  grandfather  seventy  years  ago ;  whether 
a  Hohenzollern  be  once  more  Kaiser  in  Prussia; 
whether  the  German  League  of  1870  hold  together; 
whether  the  next  generation  produce  another 
Genseric  and  another  raid  across  the  Rhine — these 
are  matters  of  secondary  speculation.  Our  duty 
today  is  more  practical.  Prussia  must  be  made 
harmless  if  the  world  is  to  be  made  safe;  and 
Prussia  will  stay  harmless  just  so  long  as  she  is 
compelled  to — and  no  longer.  If  history  do  not 
teach  us  this,  then  have  I  written  to  no  purpose. 

18 

THE  END 


Prussian  Memories 

By 
Poultney  Bigelow 


Mr.  Poultney  Bigelow  passed  some  years 
of  his  boyhood  in  Prussia,  and  in  later  years  he 
made  various  sojourns  in  Germany.  At  the 
time  of  his  school  experience,  his  father,  the 
late  John  Bigelow,  was  Minister  in  Paris.  The 
father  had  friends  among  the  Court  officials  in 
Berlin,  and  young  Bigelow  had  the  opportunity, 
during  his  school  work,  of  associating  as  a  play- 
mate with  the  recent  Emperor  William.  His 
boyish  impressions  were  corrected  or  confirmed 
through  the  knowledge  secured  in  his  later 
visits  to  Prussia.  He  writes  with  full  knowledge 
and  with  freedom  from  prejudice.  He  has  in 
fact  an  appreciative  memory  of  his  playfellow 
William,  and  speaks  with  appreciation  of  other 
noteworthy  characters  with  whom  he  came  into 
relations.  In  summing  up,  however,  the  char- 
acter, the  aims,  and  the  policies  of  Prussia,  he 
arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  the  success  of 
Prussia  in  its  attempt  to  dominate  Europe  and 
to  create  a  world  empire  would  bring  serious 
trouble  upon  Germany,  upon  Europe,  and  upon 
the  world.  Mr.  Bigelow  has  a  keen  sense  of 
humor  and  his  narrative  is  dramatic,  spirited, 
and  thoroughly  readable. 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  London 


GENSERIC 

King  of  the  Vandals  and  First 
Prussian  Kaiser 

By 

Poultney  Bigelow 

M.A.,  F.R.G.S. 
Author  of  "  Prussian  Memories,"  etc. 

The  author  draws  a  close  analogy  between 
Genseric  and  his  Vandal  hordes  of  the  fifth 
century,  and  the  masters  of  Prussianism  to- 
day. This  ancient  chief  of  militarissmus  who 
sacked  Rome,  and  with  wild  wantonness  plun- 
dered, devastated,  spread  horror,  in  all  countries 
lining  the  Mediterranean  shores  is  compared 
favorably  with  the  "All  Highest"  of  Central 
Europe  who  in  the  enlightened  twentieth  century 
has  permitted  his  hosts  to  commit  unspeakable 
atrocities  in  Belgium  and  other  countries  where 
the  iron  hand  has  fallen. 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  London 


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